Shadow Chronicles
by Dark Angel Dragon
Summary: G1 AU. Based off of the cartoon to a degree. 1986 Movie never happened. See some remakes of the G1verse characters and of my characters by commissioned artists over at / Created characters are mine, do not use them. The transformers discover something interesting in their own backyard.
1. Chapter 1

*Part 1*  
*

It was just one of those days.

Sirens blaring. Wheels screeching. People running.

Just her luck to be heading back home after retrieving something for her sisters and ending up in trouble and on the run from them, going through the city streets of Portland of all places.

She knew who else was around here and didn't want to run into them just yet. Then again she didn't want these ones around either. If her sisters knew what she'd been doing they'd have her rear end, again!

So far she'd tried every method she knew of to get around the ones following her so she could get out of here and back on the road again to home sweet home where she lived with family and friends.

But that wasn't going to happen. Not today she thought. At least not right now.  
They were really ticked off. She guessed that she shouldn't have opened up her mouth like she always did and say something she'd later regret. Like now.

She had inadvertently run afoul of the Stunticons a little ways up north during her drive and she'd gotten away from them then, only to have them catch up to her in Portland.

And then they arrived. The others she was thinking about. The Autobots.

One of her sisters, the unofficial boss of their little group, had continuously cautioned her to learn to keep her mouth shut. To not talk when it wasn't needed. But she had opened it again and she knew she was going to get a mouthful when she got back home.

All she thought was that the Autobots must have been monitoring events in the area or listening to the local Police radios and recognized the Stunticons by their description or were called in by the local law enforcement. It was just an unfortunate bonus that she happened to be there to distract these Decepticons from whatever it was they were doing at the time and inadvertently led them to Portland.

By then the Portland P.D. had backed off when the Autobots showed up. She didn't know then that the ones called Prowl, Bluestreak, Jazz, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe had appeared. She had heard over her radio that Autobots had arrived in response to the appearance of the Stunticons in Portland but hadn't known which ones at the time.

"So Prowl?" Jazz asks over the comms.

"Yes Jazz?"

"What's the go ol' buddy?"

"Have each of the team pick a target and take them out one by one. Then we'll all attempt to take down Motor Master as a group."

"You heard the boss! Let's go!" Calls Jazz to the others. They all split up to go after their respective targets.

"So which one do you want?" Asks Sideswipe of his twin brother.

"Does it really matter? They are all ugly and pathetic and no match for my precision!" Muses Sunstreaker.

"Yeah whatever bro'." Sideswipe just ignores his brother's conceited opinion of himself and picks his own target.

But what they didn't know was that the Stunticons weren't really here to cause reckless damage to the vicinity as they usually did. They had come in search of a human driver that had sassed them on the highway and made fools of them verbally. They wanted payback. Pure and simple. In short, they wanted the pink Lotus and its driver now careening through Portland trying in vain to evade them and get away.

The human driver, Casey, was of course making use of her knowledge of the city streets to evade them as best she could but wasn't succeeding as it was five against one. She wasn't really in the mood to keep running. She was tired of driving and wanted to go home and rest after a long day of running errands for her other sisters.

She had tried to put out an SOS on her cell phone at some stage but she needed to keep all her attention focused on driving and evading the Decepticon antagonists and she hoped her text had gotten through to someone at home to come and help.

And having the Autobots showing up when they did wasn't something really she wanted, but then it was either being killed by the Decepticons or by her sisters if Casey led any Decepticons near her other sisters laboratory.

She decided she could use the Autobots as cover to get away if she could. She really didn't want to have anything to do with either side because she would most likely get an ear thrashing from for causing trouble again.

One of her sisters, Francine, was a well known scientist and worked with both civil and government projects. And some of her secret projects, if found out by the Decepticons, would make either her or the family a target if only the Stunticons had known.

The elder sister Sonia had thought it would be better Francine be as discreet as possible about her science projects to keep everyone safe from harm despite Francine's personality. And of course Casey's incessant chatter and penchant for getting herself into and out of trouble didn't help.

Francine was possibly the smartest human on the planet but hid her true self from the public with her fun loving and frivolous party girl nature and her constant need for public interaction and fun. She wasn't on the run or needed to hide but it was necessary for safety reasons to keep her science projects secret due to the nature of some of the things she was working on and the people who she was involved with.

Casey understood this, but she was a motor mouth that could put the Autobot Bluestreak to shame. Even though she could keep a secret, she couldn't always stop talking, she didn't really know how, but wanted to protect her older sisters work and get home, away from the Stunticons and deliver the items she had picked up for Francine today.

Yet she didn't want to go back home to face the one who would certainly be telling her off, Sonia. She sighed, and thought 'Me and my big mouth, again!'

Jazz had gotten into position and radioed the others, "Is it just me or are they picking on some human motorist in some flash pink Lotus? Hmm…Nice paint job though!" Jazz commented, noticing how the sunlight was making the custom pink paint show its metallic lilac shine and custom vinyls.

' _Probably some human who was stupid enough to mouth off at them and now we'll have to clean up after them!'_ Retorts Sunstreaker over the comms., as he was listening in. _'At least I get the chance to beat up on some Deceps' and show off my skills!'_

It was around this time the Decepticons had the human cornered down one end of a street in the city with no way out. She had the engine revving while stationary and it was shaking the car chassis a little.

The one called Drag Strip decided to voice his opinion of it. "Aww look at the widdle human in its car! It's trembling in fear! Hey it's so afraid of us, the car is shakin' too!" He taunts. A couple of the other Stunticons laughed at the remark.

Most of them were still in their alternate modes. Casey was unsure what to do now. This wasn't going to be easy to get out of but she had to at least try whether her SOS was received or not. Stupid smart mouth that she was.

She could see the other Stunticons weren't bothered either way if they had to leave. But Motor Master had forced them to come and take action against her as he was the one she had sassed and got the better of. And he was going to have nothing of it, his Decepticon pride wouldn't let him, even if he had to drag his posse along to do it, he would stay and crush this human for its insolence. The others just saw doing something to the human driver as a bit of extra fun.

Casey had to get out of here and away before there was a chance she was captured, hurt or worse, killed. She was still cursing her incessant ability to talk.

Prowl had come up behind the Stunticons quietly and was watching them from a hidden spot. Jazz and the twins were not too far away doing the same thing. And Bluestreak was in a hidden position for some sniper shots not too far from Prowl.

"So what do you think Prowl?" Asks Jazz from nearby.

Prowl looks ahead to where the pink car was sitting with the human in the driver's seat. "Getting that human driver out of trouble is a priority. I don't know what they did to get into this situation with these Decepticons or why they are even after the human but this would be a good opportunity to bring some prisoners in for questioning. The Decepticons have been too quiet lately and they might provide some answers." He replied. He looks over to Jazz and the twins who are opposite himself. He indicates to them to start moving in and engage the enemy.

It was then that the Stunticons changed to their robot modes as they caught sight of a shot out of nowhere from Bluestreak. When it hit Wind Rider, he instantly recognized the gunfire signature and just as suddenly forgot about the human for the time being and focused on the Autobots instead, just like his team mates did.

Just as they do though, Casey sprang her sports car into gear and used it as an opportunity to evade them and get out of there but she didn't get very far.

Another car had joined the party. Someone she knew. A friend. Someone had got her message.

During the attack by the Autobots, the ones called Dead End and Breakdown were caught off guard. They were standing there in their robot modes and barely got out of the way when an orange and black Dodge Viper ran them down to help Casey get away.

The other car went straight for the pack leader. This big purple and black truck called Motor Master.

Casey guessed her friend wanted to play chicken with the Stunticon team leader. But the Viper charging at him head on got their attention and Motor Master just sat there and laughed heartily.

"As if a little skid mark like that is going to do me any damage!" He taunts. He hadn't even bothered to transform to his robot mode like the others had previously. Not even bothering to think that any humans could do him any harm.

Dead End and Breakdown had jumped for cover and Drag Strip and Wild Rider weren't so bothered as they were in the thick of the fight with the other mechs. But a quiet verbal chat could be heard passing between them about a bet, about their leader, out of Motor Master's audio shot of course as to whether their boss would stay unharmed or his overbearing ego would lead to him getting damaged by a measly human and its car.

The Autobots were still watching as the newcomer charged towards Motor Master.

Prowl had gotten himself and Jazz to withdraw to one side so that they could reach the pink Lotus and its driver, but it had already taken off.

Jazz looked around and found it close, driving by him. "Hey wait!" He called out as it zoomed past.

Casey had used her opportunity to get away only to be pulled aside down the road by another friend who was waiting in back up in a white Toyota FJ Cruiser, watching the battle from a safe and hidden distance.

"That human sure has bearings of steel to take that lot on!" Jokes Sideswipe at the Viper driver, "Remind me to give them a medal later!"

"I'd like ta say hi to 'em when we're done for tryin' that stunt!" Jazz adds, ducking in between shots from Drag Strip. "That is if there's anythin' left of 'em."

Prowl looks over in the other cars direction. "Jazz, Sunstreaker, see if you can get in there and help that human driver in the orange and black sports car?"

But before they could move, the driver had moved around the battle zone, avoiding fire and showing off some impressive driving skills. Numerous energy shots had already bounced off of the car's hood and chassis and the driver wasn't liking the fact that the new coat of paint was probably being scratched up, but then again, the driver didn't like being shot at anyhow. _'Couldn't be helped though,'_ The driver thought to themself, _'A minor sacrifice in order to have some fun!'_

Motor Master had decided to come straight at the Viper, but it swerved at the last second to get out of his way. He was so confident that he would be done no harm he didn't even bother to think he'd get damaged in another way from a measly human in it's pathetic car.

The car swerved, drifted and flicked out a flamethrower gun attached to the front side fenders and went to work.

Well if the driver was going to have some fun they might as well do so with a bit of flair. They had slid the wheels out at a 90 degree angle and watched as all the tires to the left side of his vehicle mode melted from the intense heat of the flamethrower, the driver then careened themself around to face whatever came next.

They just sat there with their engine running, watching the Decep's that were still standing around stupendously at their daring manoeuvre. The move got the awe of the Autobots as well as the two humans watching from afar.

Jazz and Sideswipe were rather amused. "Sideswipe's right! This human has some bolts alright, taking tha' wind outta Motor Master's tires like that!" comments Jazz. He turns to Prowl and asks, still chuckling to himself, "Should we go and get that human and their car away from here and in a safe place."

Prowl nodded.

Jazz was still snickering slightly from Motor Master's condition. "At least now that's let the air out of him, we might have a chance to deflate him even more!"

"And here I thought those were his brains being let out!" Jokes Sideswipe as he is narrowly missed by a shot from Motor Master's gun as he finally transformed to his robot mode and took a shot at the closest Autobot to him.

"I heard that you Auto-punks! Get over here and fight like real mechs!" goads the Stunticon leader.

"Gladly!" Responds Sideswipe without thinking of the consequences to himself, with the damages that Motor Master could do to him in a one on one fight.

Drag Strip and Wild Rider had made no attempt to help their boss when he had gotten his tires blown and now he was berating them into fighting when he saw them exchanging credits in between themselves trying to avoid shots from Bluestreak's sniper gun.

"Move it you slagwads! Are you gonna let some rust bucket Autobots get the better of us?" He yells as he indicates to the other Autobots, "Go get 'em!"

They were now dodging the rounds from the Autobot weapons and heading for a fight with their enemy. The Autobots were returning fire of their own.

The driver had not turned to go to a safe distance but instead stayed parked near the battle to watch. It didn't bother the driver at all. They felt quite safe where they were. Stray photon blasts from the surrounding battle ricocheted off the hood of the Viper. Even though it didn't damage the car chassis, it still damaged the paint job. They still didn't like it, but then the car wasn't ordinary so they just sat there and waited, letting the Autobots handle things.

The car chassis was actually reinforced armour and wasn't affected by any type of energy blasts. The chassis was made of an incredibly dense experimental material that would take the brunt of a blow from a very strong Transformer and come out of it with minimal damage. This was one of Francine's inventions, but Francine Deane wasn't the driver.

The other car just sat there, waiting for their opportunity.

"What the hell is she doing?" Questioned the female driver of the white SUV, looking on in the direction of the fight.

Casey was still watching with her friend, "Maybe she wants to show off again?"

The older female harrumphed and then went and sat in the driver's seat of her vehicle and switched on some scanners, she was annoyed at having to be here, but she was going to put up with it. It was bad enough the driver of the Viper had come into town. Also that Casey had mouthed off and annoyed some Decepticons. She continued to observe the goings on and noticed some strange sonic wavelengths coming from the Decepticon Breakdown.

She got onto her radio unit and contacted the other driver. "You on the air Rusty or are you so bored you've gone to sleep?"

The driver of the Viper knew she was joking, but felt somewhat bothered at having her fun interrupted. _'Yeah what?'_ Came the response.

"You're watching the sonics coming from Breakdown right?"

 _'Yeah I am.'_

"Come on, we gotta get going before they see we're still here." Casey was scared and worried. She took the radio speaker from her female companion and said to Rusty. "It's bad enough Sonny'll throttle me for what I did today, but do you really feel like being chewed up and spat up too?"

 _'Unlike you Casey, I ain't afraid of ya sister or anyone else for that matter. Just back off an' let me do what I'm doin'.'_

"This ain't no ordinary car that maggot's got!" Comments Wild Rider as he notices several blasts bounce off of the hood of the Viper. He tried in vain to blow the fuel tank as it sat there and hopefully kill the human in the car with an explosion, but the car moved to avoid that blast. It was then his scanners notice something else as the Viper moved. "It ain't got a driver? An' I seen it move without one. I bet it's one o' them!?" He points at the Autobots.

"Great!" Exclaims Drag Strip gleefully, "Another target!" And he points his guns at the Viper.

Lucky for Rusty that Sunstreaker had come along when he did after dispensing with Wild Rider and then moving on to another target before anyone else could discover the secret about the armoured sports car. But that wasn't to be.

Close by, Sideswipe was fighting with Motor Master and heard what the two Decepticons had been talking about, his slight lack of concentration almost got his head ripped off by his opponent, but still he talked to his brother in between avoiding punches and trying to land some blows.

"You heard what that Decepti-psycho said bro'?" Sideswipe says to Sunstreaker.

He sighs and replies, "Yes!" He sighs and looks in the Viper's direction. Sunstreaker was now bothered by Sideswipe's somewhat inane question, "And I should care about some driverless human car because…?"

At that time Sideswipe was getting the slag beaten out of him and enjoying every second of it. And after Sunstreaker had finished dealing with Drag Strip, he came over and joined his twin to try his luck with the Stunticon leader, finishing off what he knew his brother couldn't.

Rusty was still waiting nearby, watching the battle from close up. She had adjusted her parked spot but had not really moved very far at all. She had heard what one of the Stunticons had said, and knew that the Autobot twins had heard also and wondered what she should do.

"Wonder if that car is going to be of any use to us then?" Questioned Sideswipe as he took a nasty blow to the faceplate from Motor Master and got taken down to the ground allowing Sunstreaker to step in and have the fight to himself for a while.

Prowl had heard him from not too far away and calls over, "What were you talking about Sideswipe?"

Now that got Jazz's curiosity, _'What's goin' on now?'_ He thought. He was fighting with Breakdown close to the Viper and then the Decepticon landed right in front of the car after being uppercut to the jaw by Jazz.

Rusty then made her decision. She utilised the cars mechanical transformation to a robotic mode and then suddenly stood there as plain as day, a transformer like the rest of them.

Breakdown didn't suspect anything, just thinking it was another Autobot, not bothering to look if it had an insignia or not. As he got up he glanced up at Rusty's very tall yet grinning figure and said, "What are looking at? You think its funny do you?" As he gets up to his feet he starts screeching, "What the pit are you laughing at?"

 _'What a mental case he is!'_ Rusty thought.

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe paused momentarily from their fight with Motor Master to see what had caused a lull in the fight.

Rusty knew everyone was now looking at her and all she did was allow her faceplate to smirk. She looked around. Prowl had already taken care of Wild Rider and Drag Strip, putting them in restraints. All that left was Dead End, who was in a gun fight with Bluestreak and Motor Master was busy with the twins, while Breakdown was still rambling out of his mind in front of Rusty.

She finally got annoyed by his rambling and grabbed the Decepticon by the neck and very nearly crushed it with her strength, then smashed him in the head to knock him out and tossed him over onto the pile where the other two half online Stunticons were, causing the two already there to groan when the dead weight landed on them.

Prowl was surprised with her appearance but didn't let himself become distracted and so quickly put manacles on Breakdown while he had the chance.

While the twins were dealing with the Stunticon leader still, Jazz joined Prowl after getting out of Rusty's way to help keep the prisoners secure.

She had then walked over calmly to where Bluestreak was firing on his Decepticon opponent. Bluestreak had of course allowed himself to become distracted by the tall hulking form of the femme, and not knowing who she was or whether she was friend or foe cautiously backed off when she approached. She gave him a friendly smile which made him relax slightly and even more so when she started laying into a surprised Dead End. The Decepticon had started to worry when none of his gun's energy blasts affected her armour when he shot her and couldn't help wanting to run when she started laying into him, she was just too strong for him.

He was then added to the pile next to the two Autobot Lieutenants.  
Bluestreak not knowing what else to do wandered quickly over to Jazz and Prowl and started chattering incessantly about the situation to his two superiors.

"I wonder who she is?" Questioned Prowl above Bluestreak's chatter.

Jazz grinned and said, "Well whoever she is, she packs a punch!"

"I'd have to agree with that." Comments Prowl non-chalantly.

Rusty then walked over to Motor Master.

The Decepticon turned his attention away from his two distractions for a second to ask the femme, "So you think you're good enough to take me down do you? I'm stronger than all of my team combined!" He preached proudly.

"Yeah, sure ya are." She commented blithely, cracking the metal joints of her digits.  
She shoved Sunstreaker out of the way who had gotten in front of her while she and Motor Master were talking.

"Hey!" He exclaimed and swiftly went to vent his frustration upon her.  
Sideswipe asked him to stop from his position on the ground, "Hold it bro'."

They both watched as Rusty coiled up a massive right hook and knocked Motor Master off his peds with one punch.

"Dat's gotta hoit!" Joked Jazz in a comedic impression of one of the three stooges.  
Prowl had not intended to allow the femme to get involved in their fight after she had transformed and revealed herself. But from his point of view it had been more logical to see what she could do after she had easily dispensed with Breakdown. The Autobots had after all already received many injuries from this short fight with the stronger and near indestructible Decepticon warriors and he did appreciate the intervention.

"Thank you for the help." He commented as she approached with Dead End over one shoulder plate and dragging Motor Master along the ground in her other hand.  
Rusty just grunted and said, "Sure whatever." And then dumped her load on top of the other Decepticons already captured, whereas Jazz and Bluestreak quickly put manacles on those ones also.

Prowl continued to watch her as she stood there and watched what his team mates were doing.

Sideswipe looked up from his spot on the ground, "Hey lookit, a femme!" His bearings were still not letting him think completely straight.

Sunstreaker comments to his brother, "Well obviously she is you idiot. A load of good you did slag for brains holding me back like you did."

Sideswipe just shrugged when he sat up and let his brother help him up, ignoring what his brother said, knowing it was just Sunny showing his way of being annoyed.

The five of them stand and stare at Rusty while also keeping their optics on the captives.

She stares right back at them with no expression and then turns to leave, deliberately stepping on a half online Wild Rider who groans under her heavy weight as she walks off. "Well, see ya!" She waves back to them.

Jazz quickly approached her, wanting to stop her from leaving, "Hey wait?" He called grabbing her wrist joint. She had done what she thought was reasonable and now wanted to go but waited to see what the white mech wanted just to be friendly.

She looked him up and down first before smirking and replying with, "You want somethin' handsome?"

Jazz smiles back before asking, "Well hey that was some fancy drivin' back there! Nice one! So uh...what's your name?"

Rusty knows the other two are watching her and she decided to leave as quickly as she could. She had already blown her cover by revealing herself to them and decided not to reveal any more about her right now, fully intending to see them all again. "Not right now Jazz, later ok." She smiled down at him with her tall height. The top of Jazz's headcase only just reached her chest plates, so he had to crane his neck to look at her. She patted him on the top of his headcase and then moved away.

"But it ain't fair! Ya know who we are, well who I am anyway, an' we don' even know who y'are?" Now he was trying to be a charming weasel to get more information.  
She realised this and counteracted. "Well it's my business as t'who I am an' besides that..." She looks around to the rest of them and winks, letting her optics rest on the twins longer than the rest, "I'll be 'round!" And then turns her attention to Jazz once again, blows him a kiss and then walks away transforming after a bit, doing a 360 degree burnout spin and then driving off at high speed.

"Well how do you like that? No thanks for a job well done after all that work we did, typical!" Comments Sunstreaker.

"Shut it Sunny." Sideswipe replies snidely.

Instead of pummelling his brother for back talking him, he instead comments, "You're just jealous because she was checking me out and not you."

"Yeah right, she was totally looking my way the whole time." Sideswipe retorted.

"Sure she was!" Taunted Sunstreaker, "She was wondering how an ugly piece of slag like you could even stand next to a work of art like me!" He thumbed to himself.

Prowl sighed and shook his head and Jazz laughed to himself as the twins got into a fist fight yet again. Bluestreak just stood by in wonder behind Jazz so he wouldn't get hurt by the marauding twin terrors.

It wasn't too long before Hound arrived with Jetfire to escort the prisoners back to the Autobots base nearby at the Ark for questioning.

Prowl had radioed back to the base after the femme had left with details about what had gone down at the scene and Optimus had dispatched Hound and Skylynx as soon as was possible to pick up them and their Decepticon payload.

"Hey there Hound, m'mech!" Commented Jazz contentedly as Skylynx landed and his rear compartment opened with the scout on the ramp waiting.

"Hey Jazz, so what'd I miss?" He replied cheerfully.

This was where Bluestreak interjected before Jazz could even get a word out, "Well this human in a pink car was being chased by the Stunticons and then another car came along that we thought was another human driver, but it wasn't, and she, well at first we didn't know it was a she, well she took out Motor Master's tires with some fancy driving and a flamethrower which was real hot and then we found out later she was a transformer and..."

While Bluestreak continued to ramble on needless of Hound's lack of attention to what he was saying, Hound turned to Jazz, "A female Transformer, here, on earth?"

"Yeah!" Replied Jazz, "In'erestin' day huh?" Hinting at something to the scout.

"Hmm." The tracker responded. Hound caught Jazz's hint straight away and then turned to Prowl, "It shouldn't be too hard to track her down if I followed her trail from here while it's still fresh."

Prowl noticed Jazz was grinning and sighed, then he was backed up by a couple of grinning twins right behind him, who had finished putting the Stunticons away securely.

"Well Prowl?" Asked Hound.

Skylynx chose that moment to interrupt. "Prowl we are ready to return to base now, shall I initiate take off procedures?"

Prowl looked at Hound then turned to the console where SkyLynx's voice was coming from, "Hold on a moment please."

"As you wish." Came back the disembodied vocals.

"And Bluestreak you can be quiet now." Comments Prowl.

"Sure Prowl anything you say..." Bluestreak then continued his tirade of reasons why he should be quiet to Prowl's dismay, who just sighed again and turned his attention back to the four mechs with him.

He looks at each of them in turn. "Hound, take Sideswipe with you and check out the lead. I personally would like to know who she is and where she came from and whether she is going to be a threat to us or an ally. Report back with any and all information you find." Hound nods.

"Hey, how come he gets to go?" Whined Sunstreaker.  
"Because I'm just that good!" Says Sideswipe, pleased with himself that he gets to escape Ratchet's wrath back at the base especially with all his dents.

Sunstreaker makes a move to show his brother what he thought of him and his comment right now but Prowl stops him.

Sideswipe grins and says, "Well now you're the one who has to greet our illustrious and benevolent CMO when you get back and I get off free...well for now I do!"

Sunstreaker cracks his finger joints and points at Sideswipe as he and Hound alight from the landing ramp, "I'll give you your share of Ratchet's kindness when you get back you little red retro rat." He moves out in front of his two superior officers and continues glaring at his brother.

Sideswipe just continued to grin at his twin. This of course made Sunstreaker want to pummel his brother even more but he held back. For now.

"See ya later Sunny!" Sideswipe called as he transformed and drove off, following the green Jeep.

"I'll get you later you dipstick!" Yelled the annoyed golden Lamborghini from the ramp.

Prowl takes this as an incentive to tell Skylynx to take off and return to base.  
He knew that the news he had to report to Prime wasn't going to stay quiet for long considering what they'd found.

"Now this is all very interesting," Skylynx begins to tell them as he takes off, "This reminds me of when I…"

"No stories right now please Skylynx." Prowl interjects.

Prowl sat silently and continued to ponder to himself. _'A femme. A female transformer of unknown origin.'_ The news would also have to be reported to Elita One on Cybertron if they were able to find her and communicate with her team, who were still hiding from Shockwave back home. They had to know who their mysterious helper was.

It would certainly brighten up the already dismal moral that had been hanging over the Ark of late due to lack of inactivity from the Decepticons, knowing that there was a femme transformer on Earth.

And Prowl hoped that the Stunticons they recently captured could provide them with any information on their activities or lack thereof.


	2. Chapter 2

*Part 2*  
*

Elsewhere in Oregon on a private estate.

A young red head was attending to repairs on a familiar looking orange and black Viper. She was doing the work by hand as she knew she could never get it done properly if she used one of her machines to do it.

Rusty just sat there in her vehicle mode waiting for Francine to finish the paint job. But she wasn't being very patient right now.

"Would you stop revving your engines?" Whines Francine. "It's hard enough getting this done by hand, without you revving up every few seconds and making your chassis shake like that, it's annoying."

"I'm bored." Came the feminine mechanical voice.

Francine sighed. "Just be grateful that the paint I'm using is my quick dry paint formula." She paused for a moment to look up at the car's hood. "Besides you're always bored!"

"Yeah ya got me there!" The voice chuckles. "So when will the other stuff be ready?" Rusty asked.

Francine had to think for a moment. She had so many projects going on that she didn't know what Rusty was talking about for a second. "Oh you mean the special paint? I'm still working on the molecular bonding process. I had to put it aside because I have some other projects to finish for the R and D department."

"Yeah and I wonder what the military would say if they knew you'd built a functional transformer shell, and were holding out on them to help them fight the Decepticons. They'd certainly want their own mecha combat units, that's for sure!"

"Well they might have had them if that little situation with you hadn't happened during testing. You should have let me fix the programming protocols first. You went and took it out for a test run without telling me and look what happened. You didn't give me a chance to install the protection barriers for the piloting system that would've stopped any downloading of the pilot's personality into the mecha control system through the 'brain to engine' interface system. It's your fault you know. Just be grateful I was able to retrieve your personality functions from inside the operating system to let you function as the mecha itself. It's because of that I shut down the project so it wouldn't happen to anyone else."

Rusty sighed, "You know I still miss my old beautiful self. I'd just gotten my old body to look exactly the way I wanted it and then this happened."

"What? Before or after the accident!" Francine mused. "Besides at least the induced coma state is still keeping the old body alive." She knew perfectly well that the medical nanites injected into Rusty's body after the car accident were doing what they were supposed to be doing. They fixed the extensive damage Rusty had received due to the accident and were now keeping the body alive while Rusty's consciousness was elsewhere.

"Yeah but it'll take a while to get the musculature back to where it was before even if I did get back into my old body."

"I'm sure I could come up with something for that." She grinned pondering her previous thoughts. She finished the last bit of painting and then put her tools down.

"It's about time you finished." The car commented. She transformed to her robot mode and then wandered off. "I'm going to see what Casey is up to, see of Sonia's chewed her up yet!"

Francine watched her leave and then smiled to herself for a bit, then turned and went to work on one of her other projects.

Sonia Tracey was interrupted by a phone call when she was in the middle of verbally abusing her younger sister for her conduct earlier today. She had just finished and put down the phone when she noticed Casey had snuck out during her conversation with an employee from her music studio.

 _'Typical.'_ She thought. _'Sneaky little sister thought to make her escape while my attention was distracted.'_ Sonia chided herself.

Sonia wouldn't have seen her sister leave as she was clinically blind, but she had been so overworked lately that she doubted she would've heard her depart over the phone call anyhow.

Ever since she had taken over the music studio from her mother she had become more business like and less like she used to be. The car accident that had killed her parents and husband, and left her with visual nerve damage had somewhat soured her demeanour. And while she didn't actively have a music career anymore due to the accident, it didn't stop her from running the business or enjoying her music like she used to.

She generally left that to her talented daughters anyway. She was glad that they were all old enough to look after themselves when the accident happened as it would have been a further strain for her to raise three girls in her state.

She just wasn't as fun loving and extroverted as she used to be. Not like Francine is. Francine had inherited their mother's jovial madcap nature, but the management of the studio had gone to Sonia, while Francine looked after the main company in their father's absence.

And despite Casey being the intellectual, she wasn't like any of them or their other siblings. She was a chatterbox and a motor mouth, and what she had done today, had annoyed Sonia. She was also just as smart as Francine was, but not in a scientific way, she was always researching information, and had good memory recall for just about anything. She could be very brave at times, but for the most part she was generally a coward, more often than not, either way she got herself into trouble just as quickly as she got right back out of it again.

Sonia just sat there in her office and sighed, 'Family!' She thought.

Casey had absconded herself to the outside of the house and was looking at the view of the red and gold sunset. Something she knew her older sister could no longer appreciate because of Sonia's lack of sight. But sometimes she would sit with Rusty, her closest friend, and appreciate the view.

Right now though she was alone, but not for long. Her friend had just joined her, transforming and placing herself next to her diminutive form as quietly as she could and watched the sunset also.

The femme was still thinking about her old body and if Frankie, or 'Dr. Frankenstein', as she liked to call her at times, would be able to get her back into it, despite the fact she had spent almost a year in this mecha one now.

Her old human self was a hazel eyed, tanned Texan with long wavy dark orange hair, rather tall and very muscular even for a female. Her appearance was no surprise as she had come from a background as an entertainment sport star before her public disappearance and staged death after she was inadvertently shifted into the mecha shell.

She was appreciative of the medical help Francine had given her at the time. She had been in a dramatic car accident as a result of her ties to underground criminal groups, being that she was an avid gambler and owed a lot of people money, the accident had left her badly injured. She had been visiting her friends in Oregon on a career break when it happened and Francine had decided to treat her in her lab with some new experimental medical nanotechnology instead of sending her to a hospital.

Francine had injected her with medical nano-bots that had repaired her injured human body, but after Rusty had accidentally transferred her mind over to the mecha unit, Francine put it away in a medical containment unit and induced it into a coma to preserve it in case Rusty ever wanted to have it back and went ahead and had her death faked to save having to make any unnecessary explanations.

At the time she was still in her human body, Rusty was thankful of the full recovery she had made and the help she had received from Francine. So in return, she took her mecha prototype for a test run. And that had resulted in her current predicament.  
Rusty's consciousness had become lost inside the operational system of the mecha unit when the transfer happened. But Francine used her technological genius to find it again and set it as the main operating system for the mecha unit so Rusty could function with some form of normality again.

Rusty was growing used to being in the mecha form now and had been cautioned again and again by Sonia about appearing out in public, but with her recent showing off she would get an audio bashing from Sonia like Casey had gotten. So far today she had avoided Sonia's wrath because Frankie had dragged her off to her workshop for some 'required technological adjustments' as that was the excuse Frankie had given Sonia in order to help Rusty get out of an argument.

"I snuck off while she was on the phone." Casey said quietly, breaking the silence.

"An' I got a new paint job from Frankie." Rusty noticed her friend wasn't usually this quiet, sometimes Casey could be, not often though. She was always after Sonia's approval but always seemed to stuff up and get into trouble, messing things up and getting yelled at.

Sonia's cold responses always put Casey off and Rusty tried to be as sympathetic as she could. She did her best to put her large hand across the back of her small friend and offer some sympathy.

"Don' worry 'bout it. I'm sure she'll come after me sooner or later and forget about ya altogether!"

Casey gave her a smile.

Rusty transformed and opened her driver side door. "Com'on let's get back inside before someone sees me and Sonia has something else to add to her list of reasons why she hates me right now eh?" Casey got into the car and Rusty drove inside the aviation shed on the private helipad, which led to a secret underground area.

Back at the Ark, Ratchet had begun work on repairs for the Autobots who had come back from their skirmish with the Decepticons.

Needless to say he wasn't a happy Chief Medical Officer.

"Sit still Sunstreaker." He griped.

"But..." The Lamborghini whined in return, uncomfortable with his current position.

"I said sit still or I'll weld you to the table or turn you into some worthless human appliance for my own amusement."

In the hallway outside the medical bay, Cliffjumper and Mirage were walking past on their way out to patrol duty and heard the screams and profanity coming from within.

"I wonder what Sunstreaker did to warrant that amount of torture from Ratchet this time?" Queried Mirage.

Cliffjumper raised a brow. "Seriously though, on one hand I don't want to know, on the other, he probably deserved it so who cares."

"Hmm." Muttered Mirage.

They continued down the hall to their appointed duties and soon blocked out the noise from the medical bay.

Elsewhere in the Ark, Optimus was in his office going over some reports he had received from Prowl. His Lieutenant was also present waiting for Optimus to finish and sign a digital signature to them so they could be filed away.

While Prime was mulling over the events on the data pads, he noticed Sideswipe's report was missing and asked, "So you sent Sideswipe and Hound out to follow the trail of this unknown femme?" After having read Prowl's report first.

"Yes."

"It wasn't your idea was it?" He replied glibly.

"You know how sneaky Jazz can be when he gets ideas that he thinks are great and how easily he can cover being involved in it at all." Came back the confused response.

"Yes very! Especially when he gets involved in the twins' pranks without doing anything at all and we can't prove he had anything to do with them in the first place. He is just too good at hiding things!" Optimus started laughing. "So has there been any response from them yet?"

"Hound contacted me on my private comms. about half an hour ago telling me they were heading out of town." And Prowl added as an afterthought. "I only let Sideswipe go because he was in fair enough condition to do so."

"Yes well I am not looking forward to Ratchet's argument either when he hears you let Sideswipe out on another assignment right after a battle with the Stunticons. I guess I wouldn't have agreed with you at the time but I do trust your judgement in the matter. But it'll only be a matter of time before he starts asking..." Optimus stops talking as his comms. unit starts buzzing. He grimaces as he sees it's from Ratchet. "Speak of the Cybertronian devil!" Muses Optimus.

He activates his comms, expecting an angry CMO on the other end. But Ratchet is rather polite and calm, Optimus then realises this will be bad…very bad.

Ratchet asks, _'Optimus, could you and Prowl please come and see me in my office. I have an urgent matter to discuss with the both of you.'_

"Of course Ratchet." Optimus replies nervously, very quickly and just as politely. "Uh…right away."

"Sometimes I wonder whether it's you that commands this base or him?" Prowl replies. Then he notices the look on his leader's faceplate, "You don't intend on going to see him do you?"

"Uh?" Optimus rubs the back of his head case with one hand and looks somewhat sheepish. "Right now I'd rather go and face Megatron and his army alone than face Ratchet!" He joked.

Prowl was quite capable of facing Ratchet's wrath without any response and so suggested, "Well you could go and talk to Brawn and Warpath about the Stunticons in the detention bay while I go and talk to Ratchet. I was going to handle that myself but…"

Optimus lets his tightness subside and vents out, "Thanks Prowl, what would I do without you!"

"You would get no work done at all if I wasn't here to help, that's what! Now get out of here before Ratchet comes looking for both of us alright."

Optimus, taking his cue, quickly leaves and makes his way to freedom while Prowl walks off in the opposite direction towards certain doom.

"Anything yet Hound?" Asks the red Lamborghini.

"Not yet Sideswipe." He answers rather disheartened. "I've lost track of the trail for now, but I'm sure I can pick it up again." Hound pauses before he continues. "There were some fancy tread marks on the Lotus's wheels that were easy enough to follow. The other set was a sports tread belonging to a Dodge Viper. And both cars seemed to head in the same direction, however?"

"What?"

"There seems to be a third car with the group." Hound had been able to follow the trail all the way out of the city to the south east side where suburbia had started to turn into estates in the Happy Valley area. That was where he and Sideswipe were now.

"A third car?"

"Yeah, judging by the cars inherent weight, it was probably something similar in size or function to Brawn or Trailbreaker but was fast enough to keep up with the two sports cars as well."

Sideswipe scratched his head. "So it was a sporty SUV then huh?" He knew how good a tracker Hound was, he never would have been able to discern all that from following just tire treads. "So where do we go from here?"

Hound was crouched and was moving around some long field grass to try and find the tracks. Since all three had gone off road since leaving the main highway out of Portland, they had been harder to track and Hound had to look more for traces of their trail.

Without getting up he looks back towards the city. "Well the SUV seems to have gone back into town." He puts his hands down over the two remaining tread marks of the trail he had just rediscovered, "But the other two went this way." He points east towards a hilly farm area.

Sideswipe follows Hounds pointing, "So we go that way too?"

"Yep." Hound gets up and transforms into his jeep mode to further follow the trail. Sideswipe does the same and follows along.

About two hours later they came to a fence bordering a large estate and transform. But as soon as they near the fence they lose the trail again. It was like the tracks disappeared into thin air. What they didn't know was that along the fence line there was an entrance to a secret underground tunnel going under the estate.

Francine Deane had designed it that way so the entrance was hidden by the fence line. She built her lab underground so she wouldn't be bothered by unwanted guests and so her sister wouldn't complain about all the work she did as it would be out of the way and underground, away from any prying eyes.

"There's no sign of the tracks anywhere, it's like they went straight into the fence line and didn't come up on the other side at all?" Hound was confused as he stepped back over to the outside of the estate property.

"A holographic illusion maybe?" Asks Sideswipe.

"No, I would have picked it up on my scanners." Hound replies dryly, "It just doesn't make sense the way the tracks disappeared?"

"Maybe they can do what Skywarp does. That wouldn't leave tracks would it? When they disappear that is." Sideswipe added.

Hound nodded his head in agreement. Perhaps they did. But even then, there was no residual energy signatures that accompanied such a feat, so he was still very much confused.

Sideswipe looked from his comrade's confused faceplate to the area around him and his optics fell on the estate on the opposite side of the fence. "You think they might've gone in there?" Sideswipe asked, keen to go check the place out.

Hound stopped what he was doing and scanned his optics over the scenery before him. He admired the layout of the picturesque place, but then suddenly turned his attention to his comms unit. "As much as I'd love to check it out I'm afraid we have to return home."

"Why?"

Hound had gotten a message back from Prowl that Ratchet had found out where he and Sideswipe were and wanted them back at the base immediately. He knew Ratchet would be after Sideswipe for repairs, and he himself had avoided a check up that morning by volunteering to go into Portland with Skylynx. "Prowl wants us back at the base to report."

"Hmph, they really know how to ruin our fun don't they? Well I wonder how Sunny is doing back at the base? Either way, I'll get a pounding from his royal golden-ness or an audio bashing from his illustrious-CMO-ness!"

Hound couldn't help but laugh, "Well if your still in one piece after all that and want to join some of us later for a game, Smokey has one going tonight. I'm going to try and win back the credits I lost to Bumblebee last week!"

Sideswipe laughed, "Yeah, li'l' 'Bee ain't as innocent as he looks, is he?"  
Hound stopped laughing. "Somehow he manages to beat us every once in a while, even Smokescreen!"

Both of them erupted in laughter and then trail off. "And that all depends if he is actually there tonight." Commented Sideswipe.

"Ok lets head back, I'm sure Optimus will let us pick up the trail another day." Hound adds.

Both admire the sunset for a few moments before transforming back to their alt modes and drive out of Happy Valley, to the Portland Freeway and then back to where their beloved Mt Saint Hilary was situated, close by to Mt Hood in the east.

Somewhere in the Atlantic there was an underwater base built from an alien ship called the Nemesis and inhabited by one part of a race of mechanical beings called Decepticons.

Right now it was quiet on the base. But not so much in someone's personal quarters.  
 _'Thundercracker!?'_ Came the screechy vocals.

Thundercracker had forgotten to set his internal chronometer to be online and at his point of duty by a certain time. And now he was being woken by someone over his comms. He came online suddenly and bumped his head case when the irate vocals of his senior officer startled him into doing so.

 _'I'm waiting Thundercracker.'_ Came back a voice devoid of patience.

"Sorry, uh, I'll be there right away. It won't happen again." He replied apologetically.

 _'Be sure that it doesn't or I will take out my annoyance on you personally.'_

"Y-yes Starscream."

Thundercracker switched off his comms, found himself a mirror and checked over his face plate. Seeing that he was clean looking enough he dashed out of his quarters quickly and accidentally ran into another of his team mates, Skywarp.

"Overcharge again?"

"Yeah." Thundercracker said sheepishly as he fell in with his wing mate.

"Who got you up this time? Wait let me guess, judging by the look on your faceplate and the rush you're in, it was either Starscream or Megatron, right?"

"Starscream wouldn't really make me rush like this, but yeah, it was him."

"Ouch! Well at least for now your still in one piece, if it was Megatron, you'd already be scrapped..."

Thundercracker stopped suddenly and watched as he heard the two Battlechargers thunder up the corridor after spotting who they were looking for. "There he is! Get 'im before he warps out!" Screeched Runabout.

"I'm on it already!" Cried Runamuk as he came charging at Skywarp.

"Oops! Gotta go, see ya later 'TC!" Skywarp commented amusingly as he disappeared.

As the two crashed into each other not far from Thundercracker, the blue Seeker realised the time and started running for the control room for his monitor duty shift. _'Skywarp will get himself scrapped one of these cycles if he gets caught again doing those pranks of his. Lucky for him he can warp out of trouble in the meantime I guess.'_ He hurried as quietly as he could into the control deck and sat at his seat. At least it would have been quiet had two of his commanding officers, Starscream and Soundwave, not been there to watch him enter, which made him more self conscious of the fact he was late.

"You were late. Again!" Starscream added.

"Like I said before, it won't happen again."

"That's what you said the last time, yet here we are again talking about it, be grateful I don't decide to tell Megatron about all your indiscretions." He growled, "Now where's Skywarp?"

"Right here." The purple and black Seeker replied suddenly.

Thundercracker had not heard him come through the slide door to the control room. He realised Skywarp had teleported in to avoid Runabout and Runamuk back out in the halls.

At that moment Megatron walked into the control room, "Does someone want to explain to me why the Battlechargers are out in the hall lying in a crumpled heap?" He cocks his head and raises an optic ridge over at Skywarp who immediately tries to act innocent.

"What?" Skywarp says innocently when his optics finally meet Megatron's gaze.  
Megatron took a swipe at the back of Skywarp's head case and grabbed him, forcing him to sit at the table and then went and sat down at his own chair.

"Never mind the monitors Thundercracker, you're needed here." Bellowed Megatron. "Soundwave take over Thundercracker's duties for the time being, I need him for a mission."

"As you wish Commander." Came Soundwave's monotonous vocals.  
Thundercracker vented a sigh of relief as yet again, his lateness had avoided Megatron's attention.

"A mission?" Questioned Thundercracker as he came to sit at the table.

"Yes, a mission, now sit down and be quiet." Screeched the Wing commander.  
Megatron raised his brow over Starscream's vocal intrusion but then continued. "The Stunticons tracking signals disappeared somewhere in the human city of Portland..."

"Then we should go and destroy the city and get them back." Interrupted Skywarp. Megatron glared at the black jet. "Err...sorry Sir I'll shut up now."

"So you should." He paused before he continued. "Judging by the report I received back from Buzzsaw, it is more than likely that the Autobots have Motor Master and his team incarcerated by now…"

"As if those pathetic Autobots could even down a team like the Stunticons in the first place…" Interrupted Starscream.

Megatron took the datapad he had on the table in front of him and threw it at Starscream's head to shut him up. He was disappointed that his Air Commanders reflexes were quick and he missed.

"As I was saying, Buzzsaw reported the scene and informed that they had help. It appears the Autobots have a new recruit. Some kind of black and orange Earth vehicle as well as it being a female transformer. She appeared to be strong enough to take down Motor Master with one blow." Megatron was of course referring to Rusty, who had been seen taking part in the fight with the Autobots.

"Are we going to go and break out the Stunticons…" Asked Thundercracker before he was cut off by Skywarp.

"And bash a few Autobots while we're at it?" Added Skywarp hopefully.

Megatron had become annoyed that he had been interrupted yet again, but he was more tolerant of Thundercracker than he was of Skywarp and ignored the purple Seeker altogether. "Not Exactly Thundercracker, I will need you to fly with Ravage and Laserbeak to the Autobot base and check out the facts of the report. I want visual confirmation of this femmes presence on their base and want to know whether she is a new recruit or not."

"What about the Stunticons then?" He asked.

"While Laserbeak is attending to that matter, you and Ravage will attend to the Stunticons." Megatron continued.

"What about the rest of us?" Skywarp queries.

"We are being utilised for a more important mission." Starscream announced proudly for his own benefit.

"What Starscream means, is that while you are on the Autobot base, we will be taking care of Shockwave's latest shipment of energon via the space bridge." Megatron commented.

"Damn! No Autobot bashing today." Murmured a dejected Skywarp quietly to himself.

"Surely my battle skills could be used for the space bridge defence Sir?" Thundercracker was rather indignant at being used as a courier for Soundwave's cassettes.

"Do not question my orders Thundercracker."

 _'In other words,'_ Thought Thundercracker, _'I'm more reliable and less expendable than the others. And should the Autobots want to fight, they will leave their base and it will be the rest of my brethren that will be shot at and not me.'_ He was quiet for too long and Megatron cleared his vocals. "Yes Sir, understood."

"Good, you will leave immediately." He turned his attention to the Starscream and Skywarp once Soundwave had ejected Ravage and Laserbeak and left the room with them, to discuss their mission brief with them.

"You know I don't think this is a good idea?" Whines a pink haired college student. "I don't even know why you dragged me out here today? I'm missing my classes at college for this?"

"Shut it will ya. The Autobots won't really care if we get caught 'coz they've already seen us before, well me anyway. And besides, ya really wanna sit inside a stuffy lecture room and listen to claptrap about History or Archaeology or whatever it is you study than be out with ya friends?"

The young female responds, "Yes." Quietly. "So why are we here anyhow?"  
"Because I want to meet and greet the Autobots..."

"And do something completely and utterly stupid, right?" Casey interrupted.

Rusty glared down at Casey and the human cocked an eyebrow up at the large female mecha. The big femme was one of the very few that Casey wasn't afraid of personally. But being her normal self, she hightailed it whenever Rusty got angry and told her to go away when she went too far with her verbal sassiness. It was something Casey did on a regular basis, annoy Rusty to the point where she got frustrated enough to get peeved. Where Rusty could put up with almost anyone, Casey got under her armour more often than not, one reason why the two were such good friends and were usually not too far from each other.

"Okay so how are we going to get in?" Asked Rusty.

"More to the point, how are we going to get in without being noticed?" Casey asked. She knew a mech of Rusty's size couldn't stay unnoticed for long.

"I kinda borrowed this from Frankie." She replied.

Casey looked at the device when Rusty lowered her hand to show her. Rusty explained that it was Francine's new experimental thermoptic cloak unit. Casey knew her elder sister's inventions would work first time every time, but she was still apprehensive about being here at the moment.

Rusty saw her face and smirked, "Don't worry 'bout it, so long as it works long enough to get us in there," She points over to the Ark from their hiding spot in the forest close by the Autobots base.

Casey sighs, "Fine whatever, but I'm sitting in your cockpit. If you cause trouble then I'd rather be somewhere relatively safe than trying to hide from a bunch of stampeding giant alien robots that are chasing after _you_ for something _you_ did."

Rusty laughed as she opened the chest cavity of her mecha unit shell. Behind the now open plating there was a pilot's seat. Had Rusty's personality never been sucked into the mecha unit, she would probably be using it herself. Casey quite often hid in there when she wanted to hide from Sonia's wrath. Plus Rusty didn't have to worry about asking whoever was sitting in her driver's seat to get out when she transformed either, only when others were in her passenger seats.

Casey climbs up as Rusty reaches out to her and helps her up. "Anyway Rusty, I think that if you go in the front door and that thing doesn't work, the Autobots you met yesterday might recognise you and not fire?" Casey asked, "But then again if they don't all know about you by now then we might get fired at." She settles herself into place as Rusty gets up and closes the cockpit entry and activates the internal comms. unit.

Rusty shrugs, "I don't really care." The femme looks over to the entrance. "I don't recognise the red and blue 'bots over there so we'll have to use the cloak device to get in."

Casey sighs over the comms. _'We might as well get this over and done with since we are here now. God forbid I'm going to have my innards ripped out and rearranged by my sister yet again for getting dragged into another one of your crazy plans!'_ Casey replies from inside the cockpit.

Rusty laughs as she activates the cloak unit and makes her way over to the Ark.

Not too far away Thundercracker had been getting very bored waiting for Ravage and Laserbeak to return from inside the Ark. They would give him a signal for when he was needed to assist with cover fire when the Stunticons made good their escape. In the meantime he was hiding himself close by, ready and waiting.

That was until he heard voices. Distinctly feminine. Coming from an area not too far from where he was hiding.

He didn't hear their conversation, nor did he see Casey, as he only saw the femme and happened to glimpse her briefly before she disappeared from view.

 _'She must be the one Megatron was talking about earlier?'_ He thought to himself. After remembering, he didn't notice whether she had an insignia on or not, but then again he didn't get a good look at her either.

When she had been visible he had noticed she had wandered off in the direction of the Ark. But just to be on the safe side he decided to stay put and keep an extra optic out in case she was after him.

He had been told to stay out of sight and wait for the two cassettes to return. He would rather follow orders than risk getting Megatron angry, so he just continued to sit and wait and stay hidden till he was needed.


	3. Chapter 3

*Part 3*  
*

Rusty had walked right into the Autobot base, past the guards on duty out the front and right through the halls of the Ark.

It was not too long after that the same guards she passed at the entrance raced past her going somewhere in response to an alarm that had suddenly started going off.

At first she thought it might be her but the Autobots had raced right past her position without her being noticed, she thought for sure they had some kind of detection tech that had found her. But there was obviously something else going on that had nothing to do with her.

While she meandered around the corridors watching what was going on, she listened in on some of the communications. There was a commotion happening down in the holding cells apparently as two small Decepticons had infiltrated the base and had attempted to free the Stunticons that Rusty had helped to capture the day before.

She didn't know what direction the holding cells were in as she had never been to the Autobots base of operations before. But it didn't take long to follow the noise that led to the disturbance as well as some Autobots that were rushing to the fray.

But there was someone else watching Rusty and her actions. Even though she was keen to go and join in, she had someone watching and making sure she didn't.

' _Don't even think about it.'_ Came a voice over her internal comms. That was Casey; she was sitting inside Rusty's cockpit, safely tucked away out of sight.

 _'Don' even think 'bout what?'_ Rusty replied innocently.

 _'You know damn well what I'm talking about. You're stuck with me in here and I'm not gonna get stuck in here with you wanting to go off and fight.'_

 _'You're no fun!'_ She mused back on her comms.

 _'And just how do you expect to fight to the best of your ability like you usually do if I am in here?'_

Rusty sighs and replies sarcastically. _'Fine, point taken. I promise I won't go an' fight anyone, just wander 'round this base aimlessly, very much like a curious and very excited tourist wanting t'meet an' greet my heroes, the Autobots!'_

 _'No need for the sarcasm.'_ Casey pointed out.

 _'No need for y'to be so annoyingly obvious either and ruin my fun, now shut up and let me wander around aimlessly like I said I was going to ok.'_

That shut Casey up. She knew if she pressed Rusty, the femme would get annoyed even more and things could get nasty. And she didn't want that especially when she happened to be sitting inside her chest cockpit. But it wouldn't stop her from starting up again later.

Rusty continued to look around and didn't happen to notice any of the faceplates she had seen the day before. She did however save to memory all the new faces she was seeing.  
If only they could see her. But Francine's camouflage device was still functional. For now.

At one stage on her way down to the holding cells, following the commotion, she had to quickly get out of the way of a big red Autobot with a fire truck alternate mode, she presumed by looking at his armour, that had yelled out about a fire and gleefully went to try and put it out, wherever it was. While she was invisible, she was not intangible and flattened herself as far against one of the side walls as she could as he came rushing past.

 _'That was a close call!'_

 _'Sure was!'_ Rusty returned the comment.

 _'So when are we going to show ourselves or leave even, I'm starting to get a little cramped in here.'_

 _'Don't know.'_

 _'What do you mean you don't know?'_ Queried Casey.

 _'Do you ever stop talking or asking questions?'_ Rusty was getting annoyed by her young friend now.

 _'No. Do you ever stop being the world's biggest pain in the ass.'_

 _'I thought that was your job description?'_ Retorted Rusty.

 _'No it's definitely yours, because you have a way bigger ass than I'll ever have you overgrown tin can!'_

Rusty tried to stifle a laugh. This was one reason why they got along so well. Casey would always backtalk her and she loved it. Though she didn't always appreciate the banter, most of the time it amused her, sometimes she was driven to angry fits and was known to chase Casey around Frankie's Lab.

Rusty had wandered past what looked like a security room with a red and white Lamborghini inside and the door had opened to allow someone out, allowing her to quickly slip in. The Autobot there seemed a little paranoid to her.

"Is someone there?" He asked when he noticed the door had been open for too long when his compatriot left. He quickly and thoroughly scanned the room but didn't subspace his gun straight away. But he did eventually go back to his work.

Rusty however just stood away from him as quietly as she could and listened in on communications.

This Autobot received an incoming call from outside the base and Rusty had discovered that the ones she had met the day before were out on a mission to take care of some Decepticons at something they called a space bridge.

She took the opportunity to slip out the next time the door opened and quickly left.  
She had finally found her way through the myriad of corridors to where the holding cells were, but was disappointed to find she had arrived after all the fun had already happened.

While she was wandering around the Ark sightseeing and arguing with Casey over her internal comms. system, the two small Decepticons who had infiltrated the base in order to emancipate the other prisoners, had completed their mission and high tailed it, leaving behind several injured Autobots who had been battered by the Stunticons and the two small soldiers on their way out and were now being attended to by some medic called First Aid.

 _'Damn!'_ She whispered over the comms, _'I missed out on all the fun!'_

She could hear some loud laughing over her comms. and pursed her lip components as she knew Casey was laughing her head off at Rusty missing out.

Even though she was still invisible, she couldn't help but still hide as she watched what the Autobots were doing.

 _'Hey Rusty?'_ Came an imploring voice from within.

 _'Not now, I'm trying to watch them.'_ She replied.

 _'But it's important!'_ Casey sure was insistent about something, she noticed.

It wasn't until she made optical contact with one of them that she realised something was wrong and possibly what it was that Casey was trying to tell her.

She had to duck as quickly as she could to avoid being shot at by some small red Autobot she had discovered was called Cliffjumper, who was also a tad trigger happy.

She heard murmurs behind her about 'Decepticon spy' as she rushed away from the area where she had been spotted.

 _'Why didn't you tell me the cloak was out of juice?'_ She questioned Casey.

 _'I was trying to tell you, but no, you're too much of an Autobot voyeur to even listen to me.'_ Casey whined and she continued to do so as Rusty made a run for safety.

She had put some distance between her and the other Autobots that had come after her. She didn't want to fight her way out, these were the good guys, she didn't even want to lay one mechanical digit on them, hence her hasty retreat to try and get to the entrance first, to get out before they caught up with her.

Little did she know she had accidentally tripped a silent security alarm and it had drawn the attention of a certain security officer, whose room she had passed earlier and whose room she was very close to now.

She had been resting against a wall and had made a move to turn her head around a corner to see if anyone was still following her when she was found.

"I've got you now you Decepticon spy!" Exclaimed a voice behind Rusty as the shorter mechanoid slapped something on her wrist.

"Hey get this offa me." She demanded, easily lifting the mech into the air as he was trying to put the second side on and held fast to the end of the cuff while she waved him about trying to get him to let go. But he wouldn't budge, so she let him down. "Fine then." She huffed. She then raised her other hand up against the wall so he couldn't reach it as he was trying in vain to get both her hands secured.

The smaller mech instead yelled out to another who just happened to be close by. "Over here Inferno. I caught this one red servoed trying to sneak around the base and steal our secrets."

Rusty saw that it was the same fire truck that had nearly bowled her over before and she used her feminine charm and smiled at him sweetly.

"Do I look like a spy to you?" She purred. "You think if I was a Decepticon that I'd be standing here talking to you. I'd be trying to shoot you with a weapon if I actually had one?"

That got him. "Aww com'on Red' she don't look like a spy t'me. She don't even have a weapon out." Inferno pleaded to the security officer.

"That's what she wants you to think. She's trying to charm you into believing she's not a spy Inferno, don't listen to her." Red Alert was fighting very hard to get Rusty to lower her other arm so he could apply the other cuff and escort her to the holding cells for questioning and obtaining Decepticon secrets.

"Red, take it easy, she ain't fightin' ya or anythin'!" Comments Inferno. "No need t'make a fuss. She looks like she'd come along quietly if we asked her to."

Rusty wasn't going to fight any Autobots and so just stood there listening to them talk. She figured she could just tear open the cuffs later using her super strength.

"Nonsense Inferno," Red Alert continued, "She was caught wandering around on this base alone and happens to be here while there is a Decepticon escape going on. She is obviously a spy sent here to distract us."

 _'This Autobot is such a flip!'_ She hears Casey say over her comms. And while she laughs at Casey's comment, lowering her arm to place them on her hips, the smaller Autobot takes advantage of her distraction and manages to grab Rusty's other wrist and clamps the other end of the cuffs on her.

"Hey, I thought I told you to stop that?" She stops for a moment as she starts to feel funny and weakened, and starts to stagger. "Oooh, woozy!" Rusty had never had stasis cuffs put on her before and therefore didn't know they would affect her thus. While she wasn't exactly a Cybertronian, her mecha shell was Cybertronian in design, and affected her just the same. It wasn't long before she collapses on the floor in a loud and crumpled heap, with Casey left wondering what had happened inside.

The excessive noise brings a few others in curiosity.

"Did we get 'em?" Asks Cliffjumper excitedly.

"So that's the Decepticon?" Asks Windcharger.

"Yeah, she's probably gonna terminate us all when she wakes up." Whines Huffer.  
"Oh shut up Huffer." Yells Brawn frustrated at the yellow and purple Minibot after he punches him out.

"Since when did the Decep's have any femmes?" Asks Gears as he joins the group now surrounding an offline Rusty. All the comment got was a few shrugs from the others present. "I though ol' Megsy terminated 'em all?"

All Casey could do was lie on her side inside the cockpit area and sigh, _'What is this, a peep show or something?' She_ thinks to herself. Rusty's audio system was still able to hear even though the femme was offline.

"Brawn could you lend me a servo over here, this femme is pretty heavy." Asks Inferno.

"Sure." Replies the small green Minibot. But quickly regrets it as the femme is very heavy even for him, so in the end the two take an end and help to carry her to the medical bay to wait till she comes online again.

"Careful now I want her in one piece for questioning." Red Alert states.  
He gets a glare from Brawn before the Minibot turns his attention back to the matter at hand.

They make their way down to the medical bay only to find that the others who were out on a mission had also returned and some were being treated by Ratchet who had returned with them, while they were about the base chasing their other intruder.

As soon as they waltz in, "Where did you find her?" Comes an annoyed and gruff voice. Ratchet had only just started patching up the last injuries when the femme was brought in and he wasn't impressed about having another body to work on, let alone a strange one.

"She is a Decepticon spy and I caught her wandering alone around the base trying to stealing our secrets." Red Alert replied feeling very proud of himself.

Rusty had only just started to get her systems up and running again and was still feeling a little funny and so she was seated in a chair with both her hands in her lap in stasis cuffs.

Jazz and Prowl were present and recognised her. Jazz spoke up, "Tha's th'femme from yesterday." Now Ratchet was curious.

The Autobot called Red Alert proudly announced his captive, "I found her by Corridor B on her way down to the entrance, obviously intending to escape after trying to distract us while we were dealing with the escaping Decepticons."

"And Red' I'm tellin' ya, she's th'one who helped us yesterday with the Stunticons." Jazz replied stubbornly.

"But that's what they want you to think. She comes in here and befriends us, earns our trust and then betrays us and steals all our secrets."

"And I for one trust Jazz's judgement." Interjects Prowl. "He is usually a very good judge of character, so when he stands up for someone without ever knowing them, I'm inclined to listen to what he has to say about them, no matter how illogical it may seem."

"And just what are we going to do with said femme then hmm?" Ratchet asks Prowl.

A glance passes between Prowl and Ratchet and then they both turn to Red Alert.  
"Remove the cuffs." Prowl insisted.

"But...but what about my prisoner and my right to question this spy?" He pleaded.  
Ratchet was still not in a happy mood and so responded, "We will do that. If there is a problem Red Alert then we will let you know, now get out. You too Inferno." Both left hastily for fear of Ratchet's temper.

That left the CMO alone with Jazz and Prowl.

Ratchet had not believed Red Alert's story and so had sided with Prowl's decision over the femme. They were soon joined by Optimus Prime who was called in to help make a final decision over what they should do with her.

Prowl Commented, "She has no markings of any sort, and no uneven lines on her paint job as far as I can see that would constitute as a cover up of any insignia."

"And also the fact," Ratchet added looking at his medical scanner, "That she has no Decepticon physiology. But it doesn't account for any hidden programming though, Perceptor will have to check her out for that."

"What's she doin' here I wonder?" Jazz said looking at Ratchet.

The CMO just shrugged and looked to Optimus, who had walked in quietly while they were talking, "I was finishing work on Jazz and Prowl's injuries when they dragged her aft in here. All I had to go on was what Red Alert was prattling on about."

Rusty had groaned and was lifting her head as her optical units slowly came back online. Her head was swaying and her optics were greeted with Ratchet's grizzly mug and she smiled, "Well hellooo!"

This caught Ratchet off centre for a moment as he knew due to his reputation, no one ever greeted him this warmly after waking up in his Medical bay and he raised a brow over it. He however just calmly got out his scanners again and started going over Rusty's vitals. "She seems fine, her internal mechanisms are of a similar yet different make than ours."

"What are you saying Ratchet?" Queried Optimus.

"She's definitely not Cybertronian, but her body is of a Cybertronian design."

"And quite a remarkable and well put together design if I say so myself." Exclaimed Perceptor who had just walked in with Wheeljack in tow.

"How so?" Asked Ratchet.

However, Perceptor was unable to answer his question as Rusty decided to interject, even though she was still groggy from the effects of her stasis cuffs. "My, my, my!" She commented looking around. "A girl could swoon over all this sudden attention from all of you!"

The comment made Jazz and Wheeljack laugh.

Perceptor looked aghast.

"Well at least she has a sense of humour!" Commented Optimus Prime. He moved forward to talk to her directly.

"Careful Optimus she may have some kind of hidden weapon that didn't show up on our scanners or subspace check." Red Alert commented from the doorway.

"I thought I told you to get out?" Ratchet snarled.

Optimus put his hand on Ratchet's shoulder casing to try and stop his snarling and turned to talk to the security officer, "It's quite alright Red Alert."

"But…"

Optimus looked sternly at the Security Officer, "Red Alert, we will take it from here. Thank you for your trouble, please go back to your post."

He replied, "Yes Sir." And left to return to his post. Inferno, as curious as he was, still followed his friend out the door.

Rusty meanwhile slouched in the chair now that she was awake and leant back placing her hands over her head and relaxed, not in the least bit fazed being surrounded by all these soldiers.

"Comfortable are you?" Grouched Ratchet.

Rusty was still slightly groggy but happily replied, "Yep! Would you like to join me?" She joked, tapping her hand slightly on her upper right leg casing, indicating for Ratchet to sit in her lap.

Ratchet only scowled at her. Perceptor was too busy with a scanner to notice the humour. Prowl was put off colour by the comment and the rest got an angry grimace from the CMO when they started laughing and then quickly stopped.

Optimus put forward a statement to her, "Thank you for your help yesterday."

"You're welcome!" She grinned. "So uh... what were those things I had on me?"

"Stasis cuffs." Optimus continued to talk to her. But his comms. unit started beeping and he tried to excuse himself. "I'm sorry that I cannot get more acquainted but I have something to attend to." Optimus explained and left begrudgingly.

Perceptor had decided to get a word in after Optimus had left and went straight up to Rusty. "If you would permit us, we, that is to say, Wheeljack, Ratchet and I would like your permission to look at your systems in order to get an idea of your design seeing as how you are decidedly not Cybertronian."

She shrugged, not really indicating whether she agreed or objected to any screening, but she did ask, "Just one thing...?"

Jazz and Wheeljack were still snickering and getting glared at by the CMO.  
"Yes..?" Perceptor asked.

"Who's Wheeljack and Ratchet?"

"I'm Ratchet and that's Wheeljack." Replied the grouchy white Medic Rusty had seen when she came online again. Wheeljack also gave her a friendly wave and hello.  
Rusty smiled, "Well, I'm not bashful in the slightest, so I don't mind a bunch of mechs looking under my hood!"

Jazz in the mean time had settled on one of the side benches after being subdued into silence by Ratchet's cold stares and subspaced a small flagon of mid grade energon to enjoy while he was waiting. In the middle of consuming it he spat out some of it and was trying to clear his intakes after what he had heard Rusty say. "Really?" He asked curiously.  
Prowl was not in the least impressed and so intervened, "I have work to get back to, so I will go and finish it and take Jazz with me to do that work."

"That's fine Prowl." Ratchet responded, clearly knowing that Prowl was deliberately taking himself and the saboteur out.

Jazz whined as he was being dragged out, "Aww…but I wanted to watch!"

"Jazz you are so incorrigible." Commented Prowl on their way out.

"Hell yeah!" Was the reply from the Porsche as he was finally dragged into the hallway.

Ratchet followed them out the door and then spotted the small crowd outside the medical bay, listening in and eagerly awaiting a view of their unexpected guest. Ratchet's scowl was enough to make them disappear suddenly and so the hallway soon became completely empty as mechs scattered in all directions to avoid his wrath. He went back inside and closed the doors behind him.

Perceptor excused himself to talk between him and the other two for a moment.  
"Sure, no problem." Rusty said as they moved away. She was soon bombarded with a thumping noise from inside her chest cavity from her passenger seat, which was actually Casey kicking the inside of the shell casing on her chest.

 _'Are you going to let me out now that you're awake?'_ Came a voice on her comms.  
"Oh, sorry yeah." Rusty said out loud.

Wheeljack had wondered why Rusty was talking to herself until she saw Rusty taking her friend Casey out of the passenger seat that was inside her chest cavity. He walked away from his fellow Autobots who were deeply engrossed in conversation and wandered over to Rusty and addressed Casey.

She was slightly startled by the sudden appearance of the Autobot scientist and squealed in surprise, which in turn got the attention of Ratchet and Perceptor.

"Is it a cassette unit of some kind?" Asked Perceptor from the scanning consoles.

"Maybe it's a Targetmaster?" Replied a curious Wheeljack.

"What's a Targetmaster?" Asked Casey. She was slightly bewildered at suddenly being looked at by so many Autobots and settled down as soon as Ratchet spoke.

"She's just a human." Ratchet clarified after using his medical scanners on her.  
Casey squealed again when Wheeljack poked her unexpectedly.

"Yep she's all soft and squishy!" Wheeljack humoured. He looked up from the table where Casey was sitting down cross legged then looked up to Rusty. "I saw you get her out of your chest casing. How does she survive in there without being squashed?"

Perceptor was now definitely interested and joined them, "You mean to tell me that you can walk around in robot mode and have a human sitting inside you?"

Rusty nodded, "Yeah she sits in my pilot seat."

"Pilot seat?" Queried a confused Wheeljack.

Perceptor asked, "Could I have a look at this pilot seat you are referring to?"

Rusty laughed, "You're a bit up front aren't you, asking to see under a girls hood before you even know her!" Even Ratchet had to admit she had a great sense of humour and so laughed along with Wheeljack and watched poor Perceptor become flushed.

Ratchet noticed the look on Rusty's face and asked, "Is there something wrong?"

"Nah, it's ok. Just never seen one of you kind blush before. I'm finding it interesting how similar some of your expressions are to us humans."

"Us humans?" Queries Wheeljack. "What do you mean by that?"

Rusty realises she spoke out of context in regards to her comment, "Um, never mind, just uh…an expression, yeah!"

"An expression , huh? Well we have time to hear the story behind that while we examine you." Ratchet replies sternly.

Casey sighs from where she is still sitting looking up at the four mecha and thinks, _'Sonia is going to have our hides again!'_

Rusty shrugged and decided to tell them anyway. She began explaining to them about her car accident and how she was helped to full recovery by her current employer and technologist Francine Deane and about her current situation to date.

"Are you talking about _the_ Francine Deane, the one who's the head of Deane Corp.?" Wheeljack asked enthusiastically.

"Yeah why?" Rusty answered back.

"I've always wanted to meet her."

"Is that some intellectual scientist thing or are you sweet on her?" Rusty commented.

Ratchet laughed.

This comment caught Wheeljack off guard. But he wasn't amused by this humour. "It's because of her talents in the field of technology that I want to discuss some things with her, not due to any human/robotic interaction or interest." He said flatly.

Rusty just grinned. Obviously someone had brought up that particular subject with him before and he wasn't impressed about someone doing it again. He was a scientist after all, she thought, perhaps he was only into science and technology.

"Are you going to tell us the rest of your story?" Asked Ratchet.

"Yes please continue, I am most curious to know how you came to be like this?" Added Perceptor.

"Well you see Percy, say you don't mind me calling you Percy do you?" She asked.

Perceptor shook his head, "I am used to it. My comrades here quite often use the nickname also."

"Well anyway," Rusty continued, "Frankie had built this prototype battle mecha shell. I wanted to help her out after everything she and her family had done for my medical recovery and bills, so I wanted to do something for her. I knew she hadn't yet tested this unit she'd just finished building as she didn't have a pilot for it, so I went out and tested it for myself."

"So I take it, at that point you were still human?" Wheeljack asked.

"Yeah."

Casey had been quiet until then, but now decided to make her presence known again. "But she didn't know that my older sister had yet to install the personality buffer device."

"Personality buffer?" Queried Perceptor.

"Yep, it's a system that creates a divisional field between the mecha unit and the pilot driving it to prevent the personality of the pilot from being sucked right into the machine. Francine was just about to install the personality buffer interface that morning when she found out Rusty had taken the prototype unit out for a spin."

Rusty laughed slightly to herself, "Yeah, Frankie got real _upset_ about it, from what I was told afterwards when they brought the unit back in."

"Were you not still in the pilot's seat when it was returned to where it was supposed to be then?" Perceptor asked.

"Yes an' no. I was there but I wasn't. Y'see because the personality buffer wasn't there, an' the fact that the mecha needs a direct cerebral interface with the pilot to be operational, my mind was sucked straight into the machine, therefore becoming it. Took Frankie 'bout a month to retrieve my mind from in here." She taps her head casing. "I've been like this for about a year now."

"Absolutely fascinating!" Commented Perceptor, getting out his scanner again.  
"Well stranger things have happened!" Joked Ratchet, thinking about the Autobot X episode of their lives.

"Yeah." Wheeljack agreed, thinking about the same thing.

After that they questioned Rusty about her body shell construction. She gave them as much info as she could, all the while Casey complaining that she shouldn't be telling them anything and she should let Francine explain to them about it.

What Casey didn't understand was the emotional strain being a mecha had put on Rusty in the last year. She knew she could not return to her body. And she was usually the type to suffer no regrets and she was feeling too confined at Frankie's lab and wanted someone her own size to be around for once, which was why she was being so open and friendly with them, and throwing caution to the wind.

When she was alone with Casey, she commented, "They're only Autobots after all, what harm could telling them do."

"It's not them I'm worried about, it's Frankie. If the Decepticons get hold of this information or even Frankie herself or her head designer, there'll be hell to pay for all of us." Casey warned.

Rusty signed. She knew her small friend was right and so she called over Ratchet.

After some explanations.

Ratchet had left Wheeljack and Perceptor to mull over some technical scans they had done of Rusty in the medical bay, while he walked with Rusty elsewhere, while Casey got to get a look at the base with her own eyes this time on Rusty's shoulder.

"You don't need to worry about us using any of that information for nefarious purposes but I will talk to Optimus and make sure the information is safeguarded against any Decepticons getting hold of it alright."

"Oh I'm not worried in the slightest. It's Frankie I'm trying to protect. She's a good friend and I wouldn't want anything to happen to her especially considering the reputation the Decepticons have when they want something."

Ratchet sighed. "I still can't believe your body shell is completely human made?"

"Yeah well I'm in enough trouble already, not only for coming here today without telling anybody, but also because I've told you about me."

"We'll make sure it won't get into enemy servos. But for now seeing as how we're finished with our scans, feel free to get to know the locals."

"I thought for sure that by the look of your reputation Ratchet, you would have had me kicked out of here by now?" She mused.

"Well we have to keep the rest of this rabble occupied while the rest of us get some work done around here now don't we, and you provide the perfect distraction for them right now." He grinned. "Besides I had better get back to my office to make sure Wheeljack hasn't blown it up by now after looking over your scans." And he promptly left, leaving Rusty at the door to the common room.

Jazz had managed to get away from Prowl previously and was catching some downtime with the rest who were off duty or recovering from injuries when Rusty was spotted at the door.

"Hey here she is!" He called out to her, "Come on over and join us for a drink!"

Rusty looked aside at Casey and shrugged her shoulders, "Might as well have some fun while I'm here before we go home and get grilled!" She walked over to them and placed Casey down on the table and sat down. As curious as they were about the human with the femme, they were more interested in the femme herself and so barely paid Casey any mind and didn't wonder where she had come from. As it was she somehow ended up in conversation with Bluestreak at another table while Rusty was otherwise occupied.

Rusty was curious about what they were drinking, as she could tell they were obviously drunk on it, "So what's this stuff?"

"What do you mean? It's energon? You mean you don't refuel on this stuff?" Sideswipe queried. Rusty recognized him as the red Lamborghini from the day before.

"Nope. I have my own independent power cell."

Some at the table were too drunk to care what she had just said and just passed her a drink, "Then let us be the first to offer you a drink of our finest high grade!" Someone named Brawn said to her.

She took it and looked at it, "Oh well, bottoms up!" She exclaimed, sculling the drink in one go and getting astonished looks from the others. She looked at their faceplates and asked "What?"

They were stunned for a minute or so after seeing her down such a high concentration of energon so quickly and not having an instant affect on her like it should have, but then they burst out laughing and just handed her another.

What she didn't know was that she and Casey were being watched. Laserbeak hadn't left earlier, and had stayed in order to spy on the Autobots. The mecha bird was recording everything it was hearing and seeing.

Back at the Decepticon base, the footage was being viewed and processed. An idea was forming in Megatron's mind.


	4. Chapter 4

*Part 4*  
*

Back in the 70's and 80's an all female rock band dominated the charts for many years. This group were well known by all their fans and finally after much deliberation, they all retired from music in the late 80's due to events of the time. The band members of 'Sorority House' continued on with their lives in their own separate ways.

The lead singer and guitarist of that group, Sonia Tracy became a manager of her mother's music company that used to manage their band, now managing many other promising young musicians, singers, dancers, songwriters etc. wanting to break into the industry.

Sonya barely sang or played anymore on account of the fact a car accident had left her completely blind, but it had not blunted her other senses, giving her an extra keen sense of sound. It was this same accident that killed both her father and husband, who was the manager of the group, leaving her to raise her three children.

She turned this skill into a very valuable asset in using it to spot prodigies and talent for Deane Music. She never did change the name after her mother passed on, instead keeping it to honour her mother's memory and also allowing her sister to keep it as part of the parent company, Deane Entertainment, which was also part of Deane Corp, the family business.

The drummer and saxophonist Vanessa Gordon, while a bit of a wild child and a huge sports fan, as well as a fan of justice being served, went on to the Portland Police Dept. for some time before going into some work as a private investigator in her own right as well as a part time pilot for Deane Corp. on occasion.

Their song writer, costume designer and bass guitarist, Aurora Sabre, went into the art industry. She followed her skills into graphic design and now manages Deane Entertainment, as well as making her own items for sales.

The group keytarist/keyboardist and lighting designer was Francine Deane; probably the most well known of the group due to her love of anything technological and also the owner/CEO of the world wide company Deane Corp.

While she and fellow former band member Sonia were sisters, both followed different paths set before them that were provided by their parents, that were sadly placed before them when their parents as well as Sonia's husband were killed in a car accident that left both the sisters permanently injured, Sonia blind and Francine crippled, it was this event that caused the break up of the band, despite the fact all the girls still worked with each other on occasion and often kept in contact.

While Sonia learned to cope with her blindness, Francine didn't take her disability very well and so fixed herself the only way she knew how. The general public not knowing she fixed herself not with common surgery, but with cybernetics. She made use of a technological program that allowed her to inject nanytes into her body to repair the damage on a medical level and infuse her mechanically on a technological level. It also allowed her to not only walk again, but also dance, which was one of her favourite hobbies besides technology. This was never made public and is only known to a select few even amongst her closest friends.

She had also been responsible for the creation of a mecha unit that was a prototype human driven device she was going to present to the Earth Defense Force for a production project before a friend of the family got involved in it. She had built other technological devices before this, but this one was for human piloting alone. It was mainly to try and help the EDC fight the Decepticon menace, but as with all of Francine's other projects, something inevitably comes up.

While she admits she was not completely responsible for the design of this unit, she dropped the project to prevent any future involvement of them due to what happened to her old friend, so it wouldn't happen to another should something go wrong. Francine had to fake her friends death to cover up the accident.

But recently her old friend Rusty had found an outlet for her social reclusion and connected with some kindred spirits, she wasn't supposed to be out in public, but she had finally had enough of hiding. At first she interfered with a battle between the Autobots and some Decepticons in downtown Portland, and then she had taken off for the day and spent it at their base, using one of Francine's cloak devices that she was still testing, much to her chagrin.

Frankie wasn't too worried about the situation as Rusty inevitably stayed out of trouble more than she got into it. She wasn't happy that she borrowed the cloak device, but it would get a test of a kind, so she let the whole thing go. Her sister Sonia on the other hand was livid and gave Rusty a verbal what for when she came back home again.

Francine defended Rusty and intervened in the argument to get her sister to lay off, then got set upon herself. Sonia had stated that Rusty getting involved with the Autobots would only attract the attention of the Decepticons and they would then set their sights on Francine, her technological projects, her inventions or worse, enslave her to make weapons for them, and this worried Sonia to no end.

Frankie of course told off Sonia for being such a worry wort and just left. She wasn't going to stick around at their family home to get layed into for defending a friend so she went to spend some time alone to blow off some steam.

She had spent the last week living in her Portland penthouse working on her projects and taking care of business when the proverbial 'shit hit the fan'.

She figured her sister worrying so much had attracted some bad luck to her.

When her aggressors had first turned up, her first thought was that they were most likely after one her most recent projects. After all she had just completed a design for something that could be weaponised if it got into the wrong hands. She had no idea that it was because of Rusty and what the Decepticons now knew of her.

She had just finished a long meeting with shareholders and retired to her bedroom upstairs in her penthouse that was built on top of the Deane Corp. building. She had bathed, changed and had called for a company helicopter to come pick her up and take her home for some supplies from her lab, hoping she would not run into her sister while there.

She had turned up the music on her stereo very loud, and was dancing away in blissful ignorance. She did not hear the approach of the jet from some distance away due to the music, but she did hear the sonic boom that happened right outside her windows, instantly smashing all of them. It was no trouble then for the flying transformer to clear away the metal struts that had once held the two story tall glass windows in place and allow itself to enter and grab her.

Francine had been knocked across the room when the windows had shattered. She wasn't badly injured but had a few scratches and was bleeding in minor spots here and there. She didn't think it was too good an idea to move right now to get away from her Decepticon kidnapper as she had no shoes on and would risk cutting herself haphazardly trying to run through all that broken glass so she just let herself be taken and see what they wanted.

When the helicopter was approaching, it had not seen the initial attack, but the pilot had spotted Francine being shoved into a blue Seekers cockpit under protest as it was transforming back into its jet mode. All the pilot could do was report the incident, the chopper it was in was not made to match the speed of an F-15 Eagle, as it was only a commercial helicopter, and so that was the best course of action the pilot thought to take at the time.

Around the Ark, a few of the Autobots were used to either Jazz or Blaster, blasting out rock tunes when they were in their quarters or when they were off duty at all hours or whenever they could around their duty stations. It was just something commonplace to two of the base's most fervent music lovers.

And ever since those two mechs had heard that their newest friend Rusty knew one of the former members of an old rock band, they had been pestering Optimus non stop to convince him to allow them to give Frankie Deane a visit or invite her to the Ark for their own reasons.

Optimus had the displeasure of accompanying Jazz to the security control room to retrieve some reports from Red Alert's desk he needed when he was set upon by Jazz pleading again.

When they arrived, Blaster was already there and as soon as Optimus saw him then looked back at Jazz grinning, knew he had been cornered. He realised they must have switched shifts with others to do this right when he needed those reports.  
He was about to let them have their way when Prowl sent him a radio call.

"Optimus, I think you had better turn on the news." He stated.

Jazz and Blaster looked at each other curiously then Jazz leant forward over one of the security monitors and switched to the local TV channel to see what was up.  
Right in their own neighbourhood, a Seeker had gotten in under their radar and kidnapped a human, possibly for nefarious purposes. But not just any human, Francine Deane, the very person that Jazz and Blaster had been pestering Optimus Prime about for the last week or so.

After viewing the news report, he comms. Prowl back and says, "Prowl, have all available officers meet me in the meeting room."

With that he grabs Red Alerts report and heads out of the Monitor room. For a moment Jazz and Blaster look at each other. Jazz turns to the two Minibots who are also there and says to them, "I gotta jive guys, can ya watch the boob tubes while I'm gone?"

Brawn and Cliffjumper grumbled a 'sure, fine' before both Officers left the room.

Francine had been out of it for some time judging by what time it now was according to her watch. It had been sometime around 11am when she had been snatched, now it was almost 2pm.

She had awoken to find herself caged behind some sturdy metal bars at the front of the apparent cell. The room was very big, no doubt it was used to contain captives of war and such, and being that Francine had noted she was nabbed by Decepticons, it was most likely housed by captured Autobots when the need arose. She did not know however that these were bars that could be energised to prevent escape or tampering of the bars to do so. So she got quite a shock when she touched said bars.

"Ouch!" She yelped in surprise.

"That'll teach ya meatbag!" Laughed a haughty mechanical voice outside her cell.  
Francine looked to find the source of that voice and found herself face to face with a mechanical being, red in colour, apparently guarding her cell.

While still cradling her slightly burnt hand, she inquires, "Who and what are you supposed to be?" She asked, "I thought all Decepticons were supposed to be tall and mean looking, but you're just short and ugly!" She thought that while she was incarcerated she may as well have some fun annoying her captors and she was also bored.

It didn't take much to rile this one.

"Who are you callin' short and ugly fleshbag?" Asked another mech. Francine had not noticed this other almost identical blue one.

"Hey Frenzy, what say we have a little fun with this meatbag and pound a few dents inta her for bein' a smartmouth?" The red one proposed.

"Heh, why not Rumble!" Frenzy answered. "Soundwave never said we couldn't!"

Francine was amused. Although she knew that they would never get the chance, she wasn't quite ready to reveal how she knew or even how she would have gotten out of having to fight those two anyhow, without revealing her cybernetics.

Frenzy was just in the process of powering down the cell door and unlocking it when another taller dark blue mech showed up.

Soundwave could tell what his two companions were doing. Judging by the smirk on the human's face and also the annoyed looks of his two cassettes, he surmised that the human had deliberately tried to rile them up somehow and so he stepped in. "Cease and desist all functions immediately." Came the deep monotone vocals.

At the sound of it, both Frenzy and Rumble flinched and quickly locked up the cell and turned the bar charges back on again.

"We weren't doin' nothin'!" Exclaimed Rumble innocently.

Soundwave looked down at the small red transformer and waited till he lowered his head before Rumble responded, "We were just going to have some fun an' you never said couldn't rough her up a bit?" He explained as he tried to exonerate himself.

"Yeah just a little fun!" The other one said, but he immediately cringed and lowered his gaze as soon as Soundwave turned his attention to him.

"Lord Megatron has requested the female human be brought before him at once." The tall blue mech advised.

The two small mecha grumbled and opened Francine's cell and pushed her out.

"Com'on you, time for you to bow down to your superiors." Joked Frenzy.

"Yeah!" Snickered Rumble.

Francine supposed she had no choice but to go where they wanted her to go, so she walked ahead of them down a hallway curious as to what they wanted with her.

When the Autobots had arrived at the ground floor of the Deane Corp. building, they had already started a clean up of the glass and infrastructure that had fallen from the penthouse above and the local Police were already doing their part.

One of Francine's friends, who was also the helicopter pilot at the time was just finishing up her statement to the Police when she saw the arrival of the Autobots.

"Thanks for giving a statement Van', good to see your keeping yourself busy since leaving us." Said the attending Police Detective.

"No problem Jerry, besides Miss Deane pays me better and I get more benefits than I ever did as a cop!" Vanessa mused as she winked at her old friend.

"Maybe I should quit and come over to Deane Corp!" Mused the Detective.

"Maybe!" She replied. Vanessa was just about to excuse herself when her Officer friend was approached by one of the Autobots.

"Excuse me Detective Somersby, may we have a word?" Called Prowl.

"Ah hello Prowl, I was wondering when you lot would turn up seeing as how it was apparently a Decepticon that did this." Somersby replied and then turned to his old friend. "You'll have to excuse me Van' but I've got to go and talk to these guys now, nice to see you again!"

"Not a problem." She gazed at Prowl with a saddened expression for a moment before turning away and leaving, avoiding contact with the Autobots for now for her own reasons.

Meanwhile the Detective was relaying to the Autobots the information that had been gathered thus far from other Officers and also witnesses.

Jazz interjected, "Seems like ol' 'Cracker did a hit an' run on tha buildin'." He observed the information the Detective gave and also looked skyward at the damage to the side of the building.

Prowl responded to Jazz, "Well it looks like we have some work to do in finding out why she was taken and where they have her now."

"Well I'd say they'd've taken 'er outta tha city an' back to tha Nemesis." Commented Jazz, as he checked the area for any residual signatures or other Decepticons, "I'm not pickin' up anythin'? Nothin' left 'ere 'cept what they left behind."

Prowl turned to Jazz. "I would prefer to assess the situation further before determining a course of action in regards to Miss Deane. The information I received from the Detective indicated witnesses had seen Thundercracker fly off towards the direction of the Nemesis and he was apparently alone."

"Time to go home and brief th'boss then?" Jazz asked.  
Prowl nodded before he transformed and headed in the direction of the Ark, with Jazz right behind him.

"Ok Prowler, let's get to it!" Jazz mused.

Little did they know they were being watched as they both departed.

 _'So do you think they saw us?'_ A female voice asked.

 _'I doubt it.'_ Commented another with a decided English accent. _'The devices we are using are too well constructed for us to be seen by their sensors.'_ The two females had just been in their robot modes overlooking the scene below from the Penthouse floor from up above.

 _'Geez, over confident much!'_ The first female retorted.

 _'No, only faithful in the designer's ability to provide Francine with sturdy technology for our specific use and protection.'_

 _'Ok Airbourne, but you do come across as a tad egotistical and uppity despite what you just said.'_

 _'And you still say whatever is on your cerebral processors regardless of however it affects others Clash.'_

The two females talking were other transformers that had associations with Deane Corp., but they were not made like Rusty. Nor were they creations of Francine's.

The only thing they shared in common with the other transformer femme was the fact that their minds once belonged to human forms also, only that their conversion to a transformer being was voluntary, not accidental as was Rusty's.

Airbourne had been a WAC Officer during World War One. She had so loved the aeroplanes at the time but also loathed the fact that the 'men' of the Armed Forces would not allow women pilots in the war, so much so she had taken drastic measures into her own hands. While she was an ace pilot in her own right, they would still not let her fly and prove herself.

Clash on the other hand was a Medical pilot during the Korean War. But she wasn't the only member of her family from the time that was converted, just like Airbourne and herself were.

Along the way they had met and made friends with an individual who helped them achieve their current states of existence and still interacts with them to this day. They now resided in secret right under the olfactory sensors of the Cybertronians on Earth at present.

Both of them were currently under a sensor net that protected them both from being detected by the Autobots down on the street below. Right now the two femmes were talking between themselves while waiting for their companion Vanessa to arrive, hoping for news that their missing human friend was alright.

 _'Any luck?'_ Asked Clash when the aforementioned female arrived to their location.

Vanessa had just emerged from the higher level elevator when her comms. started buzzing with the voice over. She, like the other two on the roof, was also a transformer. But unlike them, she was an original Cybertronian. Yet she was also different. She had as many upgrades as her body could handle since she had arrived here on Earth. And also had the capability to disguise herself in a human form. The Cybertronians called this Pretender technology, but this was much more advanced technology than anything Cybertronian in origin. Her acquirement of it was from a different source.

"I got to chat with my old friend at least, but for the most part, if Francine has been taken to the Decepticon base, we would never be able to handle going there on our own to retrieve her." Vanessa said out loud.

When Vanessa was an Autobot soldier, she had fought many Decepticons in her time and was still a crack shot and amenable to many forms of combat, both armed and unarmed. But since her revival here on Earth, she had other reasons for not returning to her brethren. But she still knew how dangerous the Decepticons were, despite her present companions' and her own eagerness to retrieve their kidnapped friend.

It hurt her more to hide in secret from her old Autobot comrades so close by and not make any contact with them, not only because she had friends there but she also had a sibling and a bondmate amongst them.

"So what is the directive we will need to follow?" Asked Airbourne.

"I guess we'll have to break the line and expose our secret existence to the Autobots!" Says Clash, excitedly.

"I knew there would come a time when we would no longer need to live or hide in secret." Airbourne said.

"Maybe, maybe not. Rusty started the ball rolling and opened the curtains to let them look in the window, but a time will come when they will be able to walk through the front door. There is a time and place for everything." Vanessa corrected the jet.

Clash added aloud, "Weird analogy, but I got it."

Vanessa chuckled.

"Shall I radio base and organise a visitor's delegation to the Ark?" Airbourne asked.

"Check back with the Commander about that." Vanessa responded.

"Ooh this is going to be so much fun if she let's us do it!" Clash commented.

At the Decepticon base, Francine wasn't faring much better. She was being pushed and shoved in the direction they wanted her to go, and at several intervals she had deliberately objected just to annoy them.

But it was when she arrived in the meeting room that she had finally had enough.

"Quit shoving already, I know how to walk." She objected vehemently.

Rumble and Frenzy had just brought her into the meeting room in front of several other large and deadlier Decepticons than the two small punks that were pushing her around.

"Not likely fleshbag, you should pipe down and show some respect to your superiors." Goaded Frenzy.

"If you two are my superiors then why don't you prove just how superior you are?" She remarked confidently.

Soundwave had in the mean time walked over to talk to Megatron who had been conversing with one another at the time they walked in. Both turned around at the commotion.

Soundwave was about to go and retrieve his two minions when Megatron stopped him. "No Soundwave. This human is quite the fiery one. Let's see what she thinks she can do against your cassettes." Soundwave stood where he was and joined Megatron and some others in watching the commotion.

What ensued was a merry dance between the two cassettes and Francine. She had years of experience in Kung Fu and also Kickboxing and knew how to use her opponents size and weight against them. As well as the fact she had been taught by others about Cybertronian physiology and technology, not just Autobot structures but also Decepticon ones as well, from an anonymous source.

Needless to say it didn't end well for the two small warriors.

When it was all over, the first to speak was Megatron, "Enough." He said, getting the attention of both the cassettes and also Francine. All it took was one look from Soundwave for the cassette twins to stop and not continue into a round two of fighting.  
"Rumble, Frenzy, return." Soundwave spoke.

All the two cassettes could do was respond. Frenzy glared at the human as he walked past her. And Rumble spoke to her as he shoved past and poked her in the chest, "You'll get what's coming to you meatbag." And then both transformed and returned to their holding compartment in Soundwaves chest.

When they were out of sight, Francine locked eyes with Soundwave for a moment, worried that the mech had discovered her technological secret, but the blue mech said nothing. She was hopeful that the firewall that kept her internal programming intact and her true self from discovery was working against the Decepticon soldier. His attention was taken away from her when interrupted by Megatron's vocals.

"That was quite a show you put on human." He commented. "I'm curious to know exactly how you did that."

Francine knew his reputation and wasn't really all that keen on ticking him off, but she was sure as hell going to enjoy doing it just to see his reaction. "I didn't put on a show just for your entertainment, Megatron; besides if you don't dare to do anything, then how will you ever succeed at accomplishing anything." She said smugly.

Starscream was standing beside him and couldn't help but snicker. Not only because she had dared to talk down to Megatron and was still living and breathing, but also because her cockiness, she reminded him a little of himself.

"Shut up Starscream." Megatron bellowed, making the Seeker stop. He decided not to blast her to bits for sassing him, not only because he still needed her to make something for him, but because he wanted to see how far her bravado would go.

Francine was getting kind of bored now. She was a might hyperactive at times and her constant need to be doing something, especially if it was something technological, was what kept her entertained. It was her now innate boredom that was making her resort to smart comments and risking her own life by sassing Decepticons, who she knew, any one of them could end her life very quickly or just as suddenly at any time.

She crossed her arms and huffed, "Get to the point already. Are you going to prattle on with pointless conversation, like this one here has a reputation of doing," She thumbed to Starscream, which got the Air Commander off colour, "Or are you going to tell me what you want me for?"

Before Megatron could speak, Starscream interjected and powered his guns and aimed them at Francine. "And what makes you think we need you for anything human?"

Frankie just looked straight at him, "Because lame brain, if you didn't need me for something, I know I'd already be dead!"

This got snickers off Skywarp and Thundercracker who were off to one side observing the goings on.

"Enough all of you." Bellowed Megatron loudly, which immediately quietened everyone in the room. He bent down and grabbed Francine roughly, who didn't even flinch as she was picked up and unceremoniously dumped onto the table top. "You are going to make this for us."

Almost at once she realised she was on a projector table of some kind, having something similar herself at her lab back home. She watched as the holographic image of the weapon coalesced and came together into a 3D form. She instantly recognised the design, it was a particle accelerator device that she had just finished designing for her R and D department. Somehow the Decepticons had gotten hold of it, redesigned it into a cannon instead of its hand held device and this was the reason she had been brought here, to help them finish it.

She looked from the designs to the Decepticon leader, "And what if I refuse?" She contested.

"Then you will be on the receiving end of this." He pointed his fusion cannon right in her face and let it cycle low and glow only slightly to ensure she got the point.

On any ordinary day she might have flinched at having that particular weapon shoved in her face, but when she saw inside the barrel of the gun, all she could do was comment, "When was the last time you cleaned out the barrel? It's pretty bad in here and full of carbon scoring. You really should take some time to look after it better."

Everyone in the room just looked at her. Not only had she sassed Megatron earlier, but she had also gotten away with making a fool of the cassette twins and also Starscream and now she wasn't even flinching at having Megatron's fusion cannon in her face. They were all just utterly speechless.

She wondered just how much longer her luck would hold, but with her being as daring as she was, she decided to push her luck as far as it would go.

Prowl and Jazz had returned to the Ark after surmising that no more evidence of the kidnapping could be obtained. They were only just organising with the Aerialbots for them to flyover the Decepticon base to draw them out and find out where Francine Deane had been taken when their proximity alert had gone off.

But before that.

When Vanessa had returned home, she had arrived to find Rusty returning from the studio and she wanted in on the visit to the Ark. So the tall orange and black femme had gone on ahead for them.

While Rusty went through the front door to visit like she always did, four others, broke off from Rusty's company some distance before the Ark and waited instead.

Outside on patrol duty, there were two teams. Mirage and Huffer as one team, and also Sunstreaker and Bluestreak as another team around the base somewhere.

 _'Ark base ta Patrol teams one an' two.'_

 _'This is Mirage. Go ahead Blaster.'_

 _'Sunstreaker responding.'_

 _'Ignore the proximity alert comin' from tha base guys, it's just Rusty. She tripped up one of our external sensors again.'_

 _'That'd be right!'_ Commented Sunstreaker over the comms, _'How can any sensor miss a femme with an aft that big anyway!'_

Most of them ignored Sunstreaker's snarky insult and just went back to their business.

' _Team one received.'_ Responded Mirage.

Sunstreaker sighed and responded, _'Team Two received.'_

"You know it wasn't very nice what you said. I don't think that Rusty is that big, she is just tall and..." Bluestreak commented to Sunstreaker. He stopped as soon as Sunstreaker glared at him, "I uh... I'll shut up now." He said meekly.

As soon as Sunstreaker looked away he quietly started up again but then suddenly got cut off mid sentence. What tipped Sunstreaker off to a possible intruder was the fact that Bluestreak had squawked slightly when he went quiet.

Sunstreaker turned around to the mechs direction with his gun out only to find a gun put into his face.

"Put down the gun, pick up your friend here and start walking." The masked white femme in front of him ordered. When he objected and didn't respond straight away she started charging her pulse rifle, "Don't even think about it, unless you want to end up like your friend here. Just pick him up and start walking."

Sunstreaker growled at her and did as she asked. At first he figured as soon as she would reach for the gun he would try and tackle her so he tossed the gun behind her. All she did was move her foot to step behind and made contact with the gun, whereby it was instantly subspaced. She never took her optics off of him for a nanoclik. "Move it." She demanded.

Sunstreaker did not want to comply, but then he didn't want to get his new paint job scratched up either.

At the Ark base, Blaster had been trying to contact Sunstreaker, but couldn't due to the femme's presence. The Lamborghini figured the femme was jamming the signals as he had been trying to contact the Ark also. He noted that Bluestreak didn't appear to be in any trouble physically. And the femme who had Sunstreaker at gunpoint carrying Bluestreak back to the Ark was familiar to him in some way, but he couldn't place her obscured vocals right now.

When Blaster zoomed in at her on the long range cameras, he had noted that she looked familiar. He couldn't pick her either, until Rusty walked in.

"Hey it's about time Vanguard got here!" As soon as she saw her companion on the screens he was watching.

Blaster's jaw dropped at the mention of the name, it was the name of the femme he had just been thinking about, but couldn't quite remember her name at the time. Now he recognised her, but thought it was impossible given that the femme was a crew member on a ship that was shot down by Decepticons over Cybertron airspace some time ago before they left home.

Then he got suspicious, she could be an impostor considering she had no insignia. All he could do was put out an alert over the base speakers, _'Incoming possible hostile, heading towards the entrance with Sunstreaker and an offline Bluestreak at gunpoint.'_

Rusty raised a brow ridge at him and Blaster responded, "Well she's holdin' a gun to Sunny, can't hardly ignore that now can I?"

Rusty just shrugged then left the monitor room to join the others at the entrance.

As soon as Rusty left however He put in a private call to Optimus Prime and told him of his suspicions.


	5. Chapter 5

*Part 5*  
*

Optimus had ordered the Autobots to be prepared, especially after he had received the call from Blaster. He wanted to believe the femme had returned from supposed termination but considering her current actions, he would have to treat her as hostile until the situation could be sorted out.

He had several soldiers posted in and around the rocky outcrop of the entrance to the Ark. And had ordered Prowl to stay inside with a team in case there was more trouble and reinforcements were needed in case she wasn't alone. That and he knew this femme and Prowl had a history, and he didn't want them being face to face just yet.

"Careful Autobots. We don't know if this femme is friendly or hostile as yet, so watch yourselves." He ordered his soldiers.

They were about ready to fire on anything that would show up when he had noticed their faceplates.

"Don't worry Prahme, we'll stop 'er." Bellowed Ironhide heroically. Some were more than a little anxious to start something, riled up by Bluestreak being attacked.  
When Sunstreaker started walking over the rise with said gunner being carried, they almost got their wish, but when they saw that he was alone, they felt somewhat cheated.  
Sunstreaker's scanners had told him that this white femme had been behind him the whole time, but he too saw that she was no longer behind him when he turned to look. And this confused him.

It didn't surprise Vanguard. Her abilities were electromagnetic and as such she could manipulate scanner and sensor readings. She had monitored Sunstreaker's readings and had jammed them into thinking she was behind him until she picked up the other Autobots ahead of her and branched off to observe.

As she was watching them undetected from above on the rocky outcrop, she saw Ratchet do his thing. He had swooped in to tend to Bluestreak while the commotion was going on.

Ratchet turned to Optimus. "Near as I can tell Optimus, he isn't damaged at all, just offline. If that femme was hostile or acting on behalf of any Decepticons she would have done more damage than this.

Vanguard snorted at this. She disliked being compared to her old enemies.

"You mean to tell me she could still be here somewhere?" Commented a trigger happy Cliffjumper, "I'll give her what for, for hurtin' Bluestreak in the first place."

Vanguard smirked at Cliffjumper from her hiding place. _'He is still the same, that pint sized pocket rocket!' She_ thought.

Some of the Autobots turned when they heard a commotion at the security gate behind them.

"I don't care if ya have orders ta keep it closed ya twit, lemme out." Yelled a loud female voice.

Optimus sighed; he could hear Rusty even through the plated steel. It was then that a communication was sent to him.

 _'Red Alert to Optimus Prime.'_ The security officer dictated.

"Yes Red Alert." He could hear some swearing and yelling in the background as he responded.

 _'This uncouth femme is attempting to breach the outer defences while we are under orders to keep the gate closed…'_

However Red Alert was unable to continue as Optimus heard an unceremonious whack and the line was cut short. The next thing he heard was the screeching of the outer hull gates being forced open by said femme. This got the attention of all the others present as their attention was distracted from looking for the other femme.

When Rusty had opened the doors wide enough to be able to get out she stepped through. "So did I miss anything!" She chirped happily.

"Are you for real or what?" Asked Cliffjumper incredulously.

"No she's just a figment of our imaginations and if we ignore her long enough she'll go away." Sunstreaker responded haughtily. The mech having developed a dislike for her over the last few weeks, he didn't bother to hide his dislike either.

"Maybe we should do the same to you." Cliffjumper replied dryly.

"And maybe I should pound your faceplate pipsqueak." He retorted.

"Settle down you two, this ain't tha tahme nor tha place." Ironhide snapped at them.

Optimus sighed, "Thank you Ironhide."

Ratchet had picked up Bluestreak in the meantime and had gone inside to treat an offline Red Alert with a cracked faceplate, so that left Ironhide, Optimus, Sunstreaker, and Cliffjumper on the ground near the entrance with Rusty standing by them, and off somewhere quiet, Jazz had snuck off after they had discovered the white femme missing.  
Jazz smiled to himself. He found the white femme hidden up on the rocky outcrop overlooking the base entrance with clear shots to all his comrades if she wanted to take them, had she been in possession of a gun, as he didn't see one in her hands. He hadn't seen her faceplate yet so still didn't recognise her, and Optimus had not told the others as yet about the information that Blaster had passed along to him.

He was about to cock his gun to the rear of her helm and have her surrender when Rusty piped up from down below. "Hey there Jazz!" She yelled and waved.

Rusty hadn't seen her friend and the moment that Rusty had waved in her direction to someone else she realised she had been found out. But she moved too quickly for Jazz to retaliate and within the space of a few very fast moves, she had him, back to the ground and his arms pinned under her knee plates. "Might've known you'd be the one mech who'd be able to sneak up on me Jazz!" She mused. Jazz looked back up at her through his visor quizzically, the voice seemed familiar despite the face being covered. But he didn't recognise his old friend at first, an couldn't place her identity.

"There she is!" Exclaimed Cliffjumper. He saw her with Jazz's weapon and mistook the situation and took a shot at her.

"Cliffjumper no!" Prime shouted, but it was too late.

Vanguard responded with lightning like speed and shunted to one side to avoid the blast and then fired off her own return blast with Jazz's gun and shot Cliffjumper's gun out of his hand with pinpoint accuracy.

"There's only one femme I know who shoots like that." Jazz had a moment of recognition and remembered the femme now. "S'at you Vanguard?" He asks.

She quietly nods and hands his weapon back to him before he escorts her back down to the others below.

Jazz noted to himself that this femme had changed a lot since he saw her last, but other than that, he was wondering how Prowl was going to react to her presence.

Later.

Ironhide commented, "Trailbreakers gonna be sure glad ta see ya that's fer sure! Pity he's off on a mission ta Cybertron fer Ultra Magnus an' his crew."

Vanguard was eager to see her younger sibling again but not right now when she had other matters on her processor.

"Nice to see your aim hasn't deteriorated either!" Cliffjumper grinned. He had already been to see Ratchet to fix the plating that had been ruptured when she had hit him dead centre of his outer hand plates.

"And yours hasn't improved at all short stuff." She responded.

Ratchet and Ironhide were off to one side laughing to themselves having remembered some of Vanguard and Cliffjumpers shooting competitions.

"Hey knock it off you two!" Cliffjumper snapped.

"Who us?" Mused Ratchet. Both of them trying uselessly to stifle their amusement.

While the discussion was going on between them, Rusty who had been sitting across from Vanguard, asked her, "So we gonna go storm the 'Con base and get Frankie back or what?"

Prowl was just about to ask Vanguard something when he had heard this and changed his line of questioning. "You were planning on infiltrating the Decepticon base alone?" He had wanted to ask her about other matters but decided to leave it till a time when he and Vanguard could converse alone.

"No." Vanguard answered flatly. "That's part of why we are here. We were going to ask for help and tag along with you to do it." Vanguard noticed that Prowl wasn't being open about another matter and also chose to leave it till later.

"And who's we?" Asked Prowl.

"Just some other friends who came along." Rusty interjected.

For once Vanguard was glad of her friend's chattiness, they had yet to ask her any questions about where she had come from and was waiting for the inevitable, but Rusty's chatter had directed their attention elsewhere.

"And whereabouts are these friends?" Questioned Prowl.

But before anyone could answer, it was then that Optimus had walked in with some datapads in his hands and placed them in front of Prowl.

"To be honest," Optimus commented, "I'm more interested in knowing where you have been for the last four and a half million cycles and if you were alive and functional, why you didn't return to active duty? You are an Autobot soldier after all."

But Optimus didn't get the answer he wanted. "Was. I'm not wearing the Autobot brand anymore if you've noticed. Besides that's a very long story for another time. Right now what's important is getting Francine Deane away from the Decepticons before she is either harmed or forced to build some kind of weapon for them." Vanguard answered, knowing that she could also be at risk from Soundwave or another Decepticon discovered what she really was or having information about her or her friends uncovered.

They however didn't get long to formulate a strategy due to the impact blasts rocking the ground from outside. The Decepticons had come to them.

 _'Ya there big red?'_ Came a message on his comms.

"Go ahead Blaster." He responded.

 _'Those 'Cons snuck up on top of us and are now bombardin' tha base with their weapons and they've got a human with them. Teletraan One has already initiated defences and closed the blast doors at the entrance. Scout teams one and two are trapped outside and I can't contact 'em, they could've been taken out beforehand which is why no one radioed in to warn us 'bout our visitors.'_

"Thanks Blaster, Optimus out." He turned off his comms. and looked at the others, He knew that Bumblebee and Tracks had been sent out to replace Bluestreak and Sunstreaker after the earlier problems, and was now worried about his soldiers stuck outside and out of radio contact with the bombardment going on.

Ratchet commented, "I will go get my equipment ready then join you shortly." Then he left.

"Good." He paused for a moment and asked Prowl, "Organise a team to go out the north entrance quietly and look for Mirage, Huffer, Tracks and Bumblebee, then come and join me out at the south entrance if you find them." Prowl nodded. "The rest of you come with me." He left and the others followed, with Vanguard and Rusty right behind them.

"Alright!" Rusty commented crunching her digit joints together, "Party time!"

"And just how long are we going to waste our firepower blasting the Autobots doors down before we get to waste some of them." Whined Starscream.

"When the majority of them are out here to let us test our newest weapon that this human technologist so kindly helped us make." Beamed Megatron, looking down at the female human that was squirming in his grip.

But he became disgusted with the fleshling and turned to his soldiers, "Bombshell watch this fleshling and don't let her get away."

"As you wish Megatron." The Insecticon leader answered.

After she was tossed on the ground, Francine got up only to be surrounded by several nasty looking bug machines and cringed, she hated bugs.

"I wonder what kind of spare parts I could get from this one?" The Insecticon called Chop Shop commented getting awfully close to her head.

When the Autobots finally emerged, Megatron ordered, "Decepticons attack!"  
As soon as Optimus was able to he gave his own order, "Autobots, defend the base and take down those Decepticons."

The various soldiers of both sides took their positions and picked out their opponents, while the Aerialbots took to the sky to deal with the Seekers, the rest stayed on the ground. That left the two femmes on their own.

Vanguard was about to turn around and ask Rusty to join her to retrieve something she had detected, but before she could encourage Rusty to come with her, the large femme had to deal with her own problems. So Vanguard looked elsewhere for help, as Motor Master had come wanting payback.

He had gotten Rusty's attention by coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her in a vice grip, trying to crush her. But all she said was, "Geez if ya wanted a hug, all ya had to do was ask for one sweetheart!"

This infuriated him even more. She had no problems breaking free of his arm lock and then turned to give him what for. All of a sudden, the Decepticons around him believed the stories they had been told about the femme from the other Stunticons and gave Motor Master a wide berth, so those that wanted to, moved off to other Autobots to dismember.

Vanguard in the meantime had tried to contact her hidden friends so she could go and check out the signal she was picking up on her scanners. With her friends providing the cover, she could go and retrieve Francine, if the signal was coming from her. What she didn't expect was two of the missing Autobots, Mirage and Bumblebee. Along with her friends, Airbourne, Bombshell and Switchblade.

While Airbourne and Bombshell went off with Mirage to help the Autobots, Bumblebee and Switchblade stayed to help Vanguard. As soon as Vanguard was able to pinpoint the signal, she and Bumblebee went off in that direction, while Switchblade took to the air and disappeared just like Mirage, leaving them with invisible cover fire if needed.

They snuck around behind the main fighting to come across a scene with two Insecticons guarding a female human.

"Is that your friend?" Bumblebee asked quietly.

Vanguard added, "Yes it is." She looked over at the two Decepticons. "Who are they?" She asked.

"The red one with the pincers is Chop Shop and the darker one, the leader of the Insecticons is Bombshell. Both are nasty customers."

Vanguard looked at Bumblebee, "Ok well, which one do you want?"

But before he could make a selection, both of the insects were bombed suddenly from above. Vanguard only had an instant's notice before she threw up a shield to protect her, Bumblebee and Francine and left the Decepticons to their unfortunate fate.

"Took you long enough!" Francine said as she coughed her way through most her words.

The silent military helicopter uncloaked itself and transformed to land between Vanguard and Bumblebee.

"Primus! A little warning next time would have helped!" He exclaimed with a mixture of surprise and annoyance at the quiet femmes actions.

Switchblade didn't see the point in asking for permission to bomb from above. She knew Vanguard had shields and also knew she would throw them up in time, something which she explained to Bumblebee to assuage his consternation.

Vanguard commented to Bumblebee, "She's just like that anyhow, no point in worrying about it, we are all fine."

Switchblade looked at all of them, then stated, "Now that we have Francine in our possession, we no longer need to organise a rescue mission, as we had tried to organise with the Autobots help previously. I believe it is time we left to join the rest of them to finish this."

Vanguard nodded and transformed to her SUV mode, "You coming Frankie?" She asked her friend opening her passenger side door for her.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world, besides I want a front row seat when the surprise I left those 'Cons, goes off!" She exclaimed.

As Vanguard drove off, she was joined by Bumblebee and Switchblade who also transformed to their alt modes and followed behind.

Both factions were still engaged in heavy fighting amongst each other around the outside of the Ark. It had made the trip for Vanguard and her entourage rather interesting to get back behind Autobot lines again after they were discovered by other Decepticons.  
But it had been the return of Prowl that had brought them safe cover back behind their lines again.

In the meantime, Megatron was readying himself to use the weapon he now had.  
Francine knew she had to do something when she was threatened with its completion. She had been expecting the Decepticons to have her build it for them, but the control programs for the device were not on the blueprint files for security reasons, which was one reason she guessed the 'Cons kidnapped her.

But what she hadn't told them was that when the Constructicons weren't looking over her shoulder, she inserted a few lines of code here and there that would lead to the failure of the device, hopefully blowing up in their faceplates.

Vanguard looked around at her old comrades, they were doing what they do best, fighting Decepticons. Her friends were doing the same, holding their own. The femmes, Bombshell and Switchblade had jumped at the chance to help out as they were also ex Autobot soldiers and relished the chance at being in action again, but for Airbourne this was somewhat of a test, being that she had never been in a battle before, but she was faring rather well against more experienced flyers.

At some stage Vanguard looked over to her human friend and was wondering what she was snickering about, then looked over to the Decepticons trying in vain to get their 'weapon' operational.

"You did something to their weapon?" She surmised.

"Yesserooni!" Frankie chirped, "Can't wait to see what happens when it blows up in their faces!"

Over behind the Decepticon lines, the Reflector mechs, Viewfinder, Spectro and Spyglass were getting a thorough verbal beating from an irate Megatron for not operating the machine properly. But of course it wasn't their fault, when Francine had already doomed the machine.

It was when the three finally were able to get it operational that the fun started.  
Halfway through Megatron giving a sermon to Optimus Prime and the Autobots about how he and his Decepticons would win the day with their new weapon by destroying their enemies, the damn thing blew up. The Reflector mechs had tried to warn Megatron but he had been too busy giving his sermon to listen and now the three were being yelled at for their incompetence and also Starscream was telling his wise and powerful leader that humans were useless for ideas when it came to weapons, and so those two got into an argument that ended in Starscream being hit and Megatron having to suffer a defeat.

Down behind the Autobot lines Optimus Prime and several others were laughing at the misfortune of the Decepticons, but were still valiantly firing away to drive the now defeated enemy from their doorstep.

"You haven't seen the last of us Prime." Yelled Megatron as he and his soldiers retreated, "We'll be back!" And with that they flew off.

Optimus yells after him, "And we will be waiting Megaatron."

As they left however, both the Aerialbot leader, Silverbolt and also Jetfire followed along at a distance to ensure they actually left, and then do a scan of the area to make sure no extra Decepticons were still around.

When the 'Cons were out of sight, some of the still cheering 'Bots started walking inside to have their injuries tended to by Ratchet in their medical bay. Wheeljack actually thought to drag in the blown mess of the particle accelerator to see if he could rebuild it or at least, get it working again.

Later.

"That certainly was the funniest thing I've seen for a while!" Francine commented, "I've never deliberately made something to blow up in someone's face like that outside of a movie studio shoot."

"You mean to tell me you did that to the machine on purpose?" Asked Wheeljack.

The Autobots had invited the rescued Francine and the femmes to sit and relax with them post battle in their main rec room for conversation, but only after their CMO had checked them over.

All Francine did was look up at Wheeljack and grin, then she sat back and put her hands up behind her head and said smugly, "Let that be a lesson to any Decep' that tries to outsmart li'l ol' me!"

This of course made several of them laugh.

For a while they talked amongst themselves and complementing the femmes on their battle skills and also for their help in driving off the Decepticons, as well as catching up on the past.

A few of them knew most of the femmes and their history and were still wondering about how they had come to be on Earth, especially since three of them were former Autobots who no longer carried their old insignia's. That and they were known to be on a ship that had been supposedly destroyed over Cybertron airspace a long time ago, and these femmes were recorded as terminated.

"So ya gonna tell us 'bout how ya got here or what?" Inferno asked. "Inquirin' mechs like us must now?"

"Yeah!" Sideswipe said "And we want to know if there's any more of you!" While this got Sunstreaker rolling his optics at his brother, it got some laughs from around the room, knowing Sideswipes reputation with femmes.

Vanguard could see that some were eager to know. Bombshell was busy arm wrestling Brawn at the back of the room. Switchblade was leaning against a wall somewhere to one side with her optics off. Rusty was laying against a table with her head in her arms somewhere in the room. And Airbourne was playing a game of chess with Perceptor elsewhere.

None of the femmes were keen to speak as they had been asked to keep quiet about their situation. Vanguard knew that either Blaster or Jazz would start asking questions for their own reasons, and was grateful that they were elsewhere right now to do so. And she had her own history to talk to Prowl about too. But in the end, she decided to say something anyway. "Airbourne's story is similar to Rusty's but not the same. Ours however is a different story altogether."

"Well…?" Asked someone.

"1947." Was all Vanguard said in response.

"Was has that got to do with anything?" Brawn said, "It's just a year?"

"It's the year we arrived here." Bombshell stated.

And Switchblade added, "All that business over the skies in New Mexico of that year was our ship that crashed on Earth after our egression from a spatial anomaly."  
Vanguard did not chide either of the femmes for speaking out, but they did watch the information they had given so she just let them talk. She was more interested in protecting something else.

"I remember hearing about that 'supposed' alien encounter business in Roswell of that year. You mean to tell us that that was you?" Wheeljack asked.

Vanguard nodded, "The government did get hold of some parts of our ship that had come loose upon the initial impact, and we did manage to get the ship hidden elsewhere. But we have been spending time getting all the missing parts back. Where the Genesis is now, she's safely hidden, the humans will never find her, but she ill never fly again."

"And you've been hiding here ever since you came through from Cybertron in some wormhole, through the space time continuum all that time ago?" Wheeljack asked.

Vanguard nodded.

"While we went through said wormhole, it had taken the rest of the universe five million of Earth's years to catch up with us. And while you all went on with the war, for us it was just a fraction of time, like walking through a doorway. We've been here since then, much longer than most of you have been online. For the most part we didn't even know you were here till 1984 anyway, so close by." Switchblade elaborated.

"We thought it would be best if the world only had one group of Cybertronian robots to worry about and so left it to you when you once again awakened." Vanguard commented.

"But that ain't fair to us; we could've used you to help us fight the Decep's?" Cliffjumper gave his five cents worth infuriatingly.

"You have to remember Cliff', by the time 1984 came around, we had already succumbed to the fate of being stranded here on Earth and learned to live with it, so we left it at that." Vanguard replied, as she locked optics with Prowl.

"Understandable considering the circumstances." Prowl said, "But why show yourselves to us now?"

"Because we had our reasons." Vanguard wasn't about to tell them everthing that had transpired since their arrival, or all that they had been working for here on Earth. Only Vanguard knew all about those secrets anyway, so for now she just made sure that the other femmes were being social and not too much was revealed. The time would come for the truth to be out but not right now.

Sideswipe thought to ask a curious question, "You said before that we were close by? Just how close to the Ark are you guys...err girls anyhow?"

Francine grinned, "I believe you and your green friend stopped by our place not so long ago!" Francine wasn't about to elaborate any further about where they really lived.

"You femmes live on that Estate? But that's like not even 50 miles from here!" Sideswipe commented.

"We do not live on it per se." Airbourne replied, "We live under it."

"Yeah the whole area is full of caves, and the land has been in my family for generations. Said family kind of made a deal with them to stay and so they did." Francine remarked. She wanted them to think they actually lived under the estate, when really they didn't.

"You still haven't told us how many of you there are you know." Sunstreaker interjected, knowing about the ship and it's story that Vanguard had mentioned.

This had put Vanguard on the spot. She knew the total crew number that had survived impact. Some of those crew members were still being rebuilt and repaired even now. But then there were those who now had lives here on Earth and didn't want to be soldiers anymore, including her former commanding officer and the Decepticon soldiers that had been on board the ship with them when it was sucked into the wormhole. "That's because you don't need to know that right now."

Prowl watched her as she spoke and knew she was hiding something, he knew Francine was hiding information also, but didn't mention it, he felt they had their reasons. He figured there would be a very good reason for it. Besides her younger co-creation, he knew how Vanguard operated very well, so he didn't bother to pry further, the time would come when the information would arise.

Right now he needed to talk to Optimus about Vanguard and the Genesis, as well as its crew.

From what he had remembered, it had been a science and research vessel, but it had also been equipped with weapons due to the sensitive nature of some of the information that had been on board when it had originally left Cybertron, as well as the nature of its cargo.

When departing from Cybertron on its original mission, it had been set upon by Decepticons who wanted it and its secrets for themselves. It had been attacked and forcibly boarded mid air by a said few Decepticons before unceremoniously disappearing in a space storm not far from its Cybertron airspace.

Being that it had never been seen or heard from again, all assumed it had been vaporised in the storm and all aboard were classified as lost and family and friends had been advised so that they could grieve their losses.

The reappearance of this vessel would open a lot of old wounds back home, but Prowl figured if they could keep the knowledge with them here on Earth for now, it would negate any visits from Cybertron's current Commander, Ultra Magnus.

Prowl was wondering one other thing though, "Your ship, it was definitely the Genesis?"

"Yes." Vanguard said, but then she realised that she was being looked at by both Blaster and Jazz who had heard just as they walked into the rec room.

Both moved to Vanguard's side very hopefully, "Please tell me they're both alive still?" Blaster pleaded. She shook her headcasing in a negative fashion.

Blaster's younger femme sibling and his bondmate, Jive and Vibe, had been on the ship when it went missing, both were part of a security force assigned to the ship when the ship went missing, and his sibling also happened to be Jazz's bondmate.

Prowl knew Jazz wouldn't have taken the news lightly when he saw Vanguard and realised who she was. He thought it could have been a reason why he volunteered for some other work around the base at first, to get away from his feelings for a bit, assuming Blaster had done the same.

He watched Blaster's hopes crash down. Jazz had sat down, generally he was the life of the party, but ever since seeing Vanguard he had been hopeful, but the look on his faceplate now was one of utter dejection and loss. Prowl couldn't stand to see his best friend look like that; it had been hard enough having his spark ripped open by the news the first time.

"Jazz, Blaster, I'm sorry, I really am. But neither of them recovered after the impact, they were already suffering from severe wounds from before we came through the wormhole, that led to their terminations here." Vanguard tried to console the suddenly downtrodden communications officer and saboteur.

"But if it makes you feel any better," Bombshell interjected, "The mech that killed them, is still alive and functional and here on Earth."

Vanguard felt like she wanted to pound the femme tank, right there and then. She had no right to go and tell them that. Especially since said former Decepticon, like themselves had managed to live on Earth amongst the humans for some time and had not even attempted to return to or contact their brethren when they had awoken with the rest of them in '47. He had actually reformed and no longer followed the Decepticon cause any more.

Prowl caught wind of the look on Blaster and Jazz's faceplates almost immediately, "I don't want you two running off and wreaking any vengeance upon anyone, that's an order." Neither responded right away. "Is that clear you two." He repeated adamantly.

"Crystal." Jazz said flatly, with a grunt also from Blaster, both got up and left the room with cold looks on both of them, Prowl followed them both out to ensure no trouble was started.

Vanguard noticed that a light on her wrist plating had started to flash red, and that to her was the signal to go home. "Ok girls pack it up, time to go, the boss is calling us back."

"But we just got here." Joked Bombshell as she smirked at some of the mechs.

"No buts, we're going." Vanguard barked. "You're in enough trouble as it is loudmouth." Pointing at the femme tank.

Some of the Autobots escorted the femmes to the entrance and said their goodbyes as the femmes transformed and drove off into the dusky night.

Prowl had caught up with them at the entrance and stayed behind when the others started to leave, watching the femmes until they disappeared.

Vanguard had stayed behind for a moment, she and Prowl looked at each for a bit silently before Vanguard transformed and drove off after the others without so much as a word.

"Something bothering you Prowl?" It was Wheeljack, he had also stayed behind, curious about what Prowl was doing.

"Hmm, something like that." Prowl stated, then turned away and wandered off, leaving a confused Wheeljack behind.

He was thinking about Vanguard. At some stage he and the femme had been bondmates. He didn't think it had been logical for her to remain away from him all this time while they had been on Earth, let alone block their bond so he could not sense that she was around. But he understood why in a way and had decided to leave their conversation till later. The right time and place would come when it was necessary.


	6. Chapter 6

*Part 6*  
*

"So did'ya get it?"

"No sweat! Was there any ever doubt that I wouldn't get it?"

"Nah Sides, I knew ya'd come through f'me. Thanks!"

"No prob' Jazz. Say you didn't tell me what you wanted it for?"

"You'll see! Hmmm…"

"What? You gonna call her or something?"

"Yeah, ya think I should wait till mornin', it's like 3am. She'll be asleep?"

"Like ringin' someone this early has ever stopped us before! Besides," Sideswipe shrugged, "What's the worst that can happen? She can't yell at you any louder than she has before for following her around everywhere and asking for her autograph."

"Yeah I s'pose." The white Porsche said dejectedly. "Ok, I'll call her now and see how we go."

"It's only going to end badly you know." Whines Huffer from the other side of the monitor console.

"Shut it Huffer!" Sideswipe growled.

The yellow and purple Minibot humphed and then went back to his work.

In her Portland loft apartment, Aurora Sabre, had been having trouble sleeping. Even a few hours of meditation didn't help. So she had been lying face up on her soft bed for hours.

She was tired, irritable and craved rest which was so easily escaping her right now and she was not happy.

It was only thirty minutes later that she had started to drift off when the phone on her bedside table rang. She woke with a start by falling off her bed.

She cursed herself for not turning off her cell phone. She would still be sleeping and possibly dreaming by now had she not forgotten to turn the damn thing off to begin with.  
Aurora looked at her caller ID and didn't recognise the number, ordinarily she would have pushed the ignore button as this was her private cell line, only people she knew had the number and she had those saved in memory, so the numbers would come up when they called. But she was feeling so irate that she wanted to tear this caller a new one, just so she could go back to sleep and get some rest.

"Whoever you are, you'd better have a bloody good excuse for calling at this time of the morning or I'm gonna trace this call and find out where you live and rip you into little bitty pieces." She seethed into the speaker.

Jazz had the call on speaker. He raised a brow ridge at her threat, then looked at Sideswipe. But Jazz just shrugged and put on his usual charm that worked on almost all females, humans included. But charm was one thing that didn't work on Aurora Sabre much to Jazz's chagrin, he unfortunately got more of an audioful of language, some words he had never heard before but could clearly tell they were profane.

He couldn't get a word in with her tirade and was beginning to regret ever calling her, now knowing what Francine Deane meant by loud and profane when describing her friend. She had explained to Jazz to not try and follow her friend around as she was notoriously difficult to deal with.

Frankie had mentioned that the only way Jazz would have any chance of getting her autograph was for her to come to him. He thought that by getting her personal cell number, that Francine had refused to give out to him for fear of her life from Aurora, he could convince her to come and see him at the Ark.

Frankie had given him the idea that perhaps she and her old band members, her sister Sonia, and friends Vanessa and Aurora, could come around and give the Autobots a personal concert. After all that had happened, Jazz needed the distracting something aweful.

Jazz was supposed to wait till Francine gave him the go ahead. She was going to talk to Aurora and the rest of their old band about it first then get back to him to let him know when the band was going to visit. But then Sideswipe had come through for him and gotten hold of Aurora's private cell number. Considering what lengths Jazz had been going to, just to get Aurora's autograph, the number was a Godsend.

But then Jazz had called her at 3am and he felt bad now, he had little to no chance of ever getting an autograph for the bands gear of hers he had, to have all members signatures on everything he had as a collection that was going to be even more valuable than it was now. Not that he had collected it for its monetary value. He just loved their music.

At one stage he had gotten a few words in, but as soon as he had mentioned anything about the band and a performance being organised by Francine Deane at the Ark for the Autobots, she hung up rudely on his audios.

"I told you so." Muttered Huffer as soon as Jazz disconnected the call.

"And I told you to shut it Huffer." Sideswipe snarled.

Jazz vented out, "Man, Frankie? She weren't kiddin' when she said Aurora was difficult to deal with." He looked over in Sideswipes direction to the left and around the corner of his own monitor console, "Makes your bro' seem nice in comparison!" He joked.

"That bad huh?" Sideswipe responded grinning evilly, "Remind me to introduce them should they ever meet!"

And both of them broke out in laughter with Huffer looking on, shaking his head.

Francine Deane was just getting up for her early morning run when her phone rang. But before she had gotten the chance to say anything, she received a mouthful from a familiar voice she knew only too well.

"Just a little bit louder ok Rory, I don't think the earthquake you caused in China is done yet!" Sarcasm was usually her best defence against her friend yelling at her. She knew that no matter what she said, Aurora would continue to talk to her. Unlike her sister, who just ignored her for a fair while before they started talking again.

"Yeah I did tell that Autobot, Jazz, that we might get the band together and go over to their base and do a special jam for them."

She heard a rant on the other end of the line about how he could have gotten her number. "I didn't give it to him?" She crossed her fingers, knowing that Aurora would eventually find out who she did give it to though. Then she was berated for the whole band thing.

"I don't see the harm in it. We can do it just for old times sake, even if Sonny is a stick in the mud now. What?"

Aurora began to let the whole thing slide and changed her tune but was still giving Francine a hard time. As annoyed as she was, she was also a lover of charity events and fundraisers and suggested Francine call in a few favours of the rest of their musician friends and have a concert get together for whatever reason Francine could come up with. She was going to let Francine do all the organising just to pay her back for the trouble she had caused her.

"Well if we're going to do that, what about the visit to the Ark? Yeah sure they have large outside areas. Yeah, I guess we can have a concert outside. And if Sonny doesn't come then Winny can fill in. But what is it going to be dedicated to?"

Aurora just didn't want to have to go inside the Ark for her own reasons and was doing whatever she could to stay away from there.

"Ok fine, I'll come up with something and make the arrangements. Chat to you later." As she hung up the phone, she sat back down and started to take off her running shoes. _'No running for me this morning.'_ She thought, _'Too much organising to do!'_

She knew ordinarily that Aurora was the one who preferred to do all the organising, as she was better at it than anyone. But in this instance, she somehow knew she was being shafted with it for payback, pure and simple. Hopefully the Autobot leader would allow the concert.

She had a great idea about what the benefit concert could be for.. Not far from the Autobot base was a military installation, they could do a benefit for injured soldiers or something similar.

It took her a few hours but she rang around and the friends whom she had contacted all agreed to her idea and would wait for her call back as to whether the event was going to go on or not.

Then there was Jazz. He had stuffed up by calling Aurora, but it was no big deal, she knew he'd be thrilled to hear what she was going to tell him.

"Yeah hey. Oh yeah she gave me an earful too. Well she can have a pretty colourful vocabulary if you piss her off like you did by calling her that early. I did tell you to wait for me you know. Yeah ok, so anyways I need you to get onto your boss and ask him if he'll let us, our old band I mean as well as some of our other musician friends put on a benefit concert at the humans military base nearby." Francine had to listen as the line had suddenly gone quiet, "Ah Jazz?"

By that time it was 0600 and the end of the shift for Jazz, Sideswipe and Huffer.  
Huffer was in the process of signing the day shift over to Red Alert, after he had come strolling in. But Jazz and Sideswipe were otherwise occupied, listening to their call. Jazz however had bolted to go and see Optimus as soon as Red Alert had taken over, leaving Sideswipe with the call, which was the same time the line went quiet. It was Sideswipe who picked up the call. "Yeah hi, Jazz had to go do something, and we'll get back to you on that concert." Then he disconnected the call and followed Jazz hurriedly out the door.

"What was that about? I demand to know what that red devil is up to?" Red Alert asked.

Huffer shrugged, "Don't ask me, I have no idea." And he left the monitor room to the Security Officer.

"So do they know yet?"

"About?"

"What do you think?"

"No. I just haven't found the right time to say anything yet. I wanted to tell Prowl alone first, so the rest of the others have to wait."

"So how do you think they'll take it?"

"Well they were a bit freaked out by Airbourne and Rusty, and all the other stuff we've told them recently. Ratchet, Perceptor and Wheeljack have been endless with their questions and examinations of the two femmes. And we don't want to freak them out completely, before they get to the other stuff! I think Jazz will take it the best considering how accepting he is of strange things. I just don't know about Prowl though."

"You're a bit on the weird side yourself Van' even for a Cybertronian. I'm surprised that you alone don't freak them out."

She laughed, "I did in my day, don't you worry about that! It's why Prowl and I got along so well, I was always hard to figure out and it intrigued him, and I loved playing that game with him."

"Well opposites attract!" All Francine can do is grin and get back to strumming her fingers on her keyboard. "I bet that's not the only thing you wished you got along well with him for!"

Vanessa gave her a cocked brow expression, then got the joke and laughed. Right now she was in her human bio-form, bashing away amidst the noise on her drums. Vanessa's little comment made them both erupt into a fit of laughter.

Francine had organised a concert for their old band and these two females had been practising non stop the last few days, waiting for a response back from Jazz about the benefit concert with their friends.

At the moment though, she and Vanessa had been discussing whether the Autobots knew about Vanguard's secret identity as Vanessa Gordon; she hadn't told them yet and would in her own time.

She generally worked as a Private Investigator, but had been having a quiet last few days with no work in sight as yet, so she figured this concert would be a welcome change and gave her something to keep her mind sharp by coming into their old practice studio and drumming away on her old drum set to practice her skills, something she did regularly anyhow when she needed to think.

Francine had come by also to do some practice. She could have done it at her rooftop apartment in town, but it was still being rebuilt from the previous damage. Francine took it as an opportunity to redecorate as well.

In the meantime, she was crashing here at one of her out of the way pads. Plus it gave her a chance to check up on the garage's business paperwork like she did every once in a while on the Corporations various business interests around Portland, just to keep the employees on their toes. She never told anyone who she would visit each week so it kept them guessing enough to keep their businesses running in relative good order.

But right now she was with Vanessa in the studio building next door, taking a break from said work.

The garage itself was located on a very large lot of land outside the City of Portland in a suburb to the south called Happy Valley, not too far from where the Deane's family estate was. The main building was two to three stories high and was situated inside a renovated industrial warehouse, the rest of the area consisted of a large junk yard, as well as several other buildings, including a farm with a house in the distance, a working airport complete with runway and film studio and amusement park elsewhere on the land.

The studio, located off to one side of the main building and just as large as the work centre itself, comprised mainly of a music and recording studio on the lower floor, a dance studio and musical practice studio on the second, and a design studio and spare apartment on the top.

Sometimes friends and family alike would come here for some relaxation and play some music, as performers and friends of the Deane family were very common visitors. It had been the original building on the property as well as the place from which Francine and the rest of the band would record their old music when not on tour and had been renovated many times.

But right now, it was just Francine and two of her friends, Vanessa and also Aurora, who was alone upstairs in the design studio.

The shop itself was owned by the Deane Corporation, as was the film studio down the road it was affiliated with. It was part of the custom auto business that made items for the studio.

Sonia had not joined them. Francine and Vanessa barely practiced with her anymore, but sometimes did so with Aurora. But today she was working to finish some art of her own to pass the time, she wasn't in the mood for music right now.

She didn't often talk to many of the others when she was here. She liked to be alone with her designing or spend time in her own places and only spent time at the house when Sonia needed her for something, or when she was required to attend to Deane Corp CEO business.

Francine looked up at the ceiling above, "So you think she knows it was me who gave Sideswipe her cell number?"

"Why would you even ask that, she always knows! I'd just hate to be you when she does decide to tell you she knows though."

Vanessa had already stopped using the drums to take a break, but had only just put the sticks down when she had received a call on her phone.

While she was otherwise occupied, Francine also got a call, but it was from the garage next door on the intercom. Francine hit the button, "Yeah what is it Eddie?"

 _'Frankie, ya better come over, there's some people t'see yas, some 'big' people. They're waitin' outside for ya.'_

"Ok Ed', I'll be right out." She looked over at Vanessa talking, "Good timing I guess!" She murmured to herself, then proceeded to walk outside.

When Eddie had said big, she thought it might have meant someone other than what was now in front of her. She started laughing as she saw three Autobots standing there and the mechanic, Eddie, waiting next to them nervously for Francine to come out and take care of them.

Vanessa whispered quietly, "Well looks like we aren't safe even here any more, they've found us again!" She had come up quietly behind Frankie and startled her.

"I wish you wouldn't do that!" She exclaimed.

"Sorry, can't help it if I'm so good at stalking people!" Vanessa joked.  
Francine just smiled and turned her attention to the Autobots. This was the first time they had been to the garage and Francine figured that someone up at the farm house must have told them she was here.

Over the past few weeks since Francine and some of the others had been properly introduced to the Autobots during her subsequent rescue, it was mainly the femmes the Autobots had met thus far who spent all their available time at the Ark. Francine had not been back since, and Vanessa, as her human self, never went there, she'd only ever showed herself to them as her mecha form.

The rest of the Cybertronians who hadn't come forward, had made a majority decision to remain unknown and continue on with what they had been doing here on Earth since the ship crash, they wanted nothing to do with the current fight between the factions going on. Most were not pleased that it had erupted here and did their best to stay out of its way as much as they could.

They were all working undercover as ordinary vehicles aligned with Deane Corp. in some form or another and registered appropriately in regards to form and function. This was part of the information that Vanguard was hiding, that the former crew and passengers of their ship, were living out normal lives here on Earth away from the Cybertron front of the war.

Though only some were doing this, the others were elsewhere on another planet altogether.

The less that had contact with the Autobots, the better, thought Vanguard. But her Commander had allowed some of the femmes to be in contact with them, being that there was a decided lack of femmes amongst the Cybertronians as it was.

Those individuals had been going out of their way to make some new friends since the fight at the Ark, just to be friendly and take the Autobots attention hopefully off of the others who were still hidden, that was their job.

Vanguard knew that Jazz and Blaster would also try to find out about one particular individual, and catch up with them, but the individual wanted to be left alone and their Commander wanted it that way too.

Not all the crew on the ship had been former Autobots like herself, some had been neutral scientists and civilians as well as a few Decepticon soldiers who had forcibly boarded during the attack and were transported along with the ship through the warp field that transported it to Earth. However none of those same Decepticons had made any attempts to reconnect with their own kind for their own reasons and had since reformed.

It had put Vanguard on the spot when questioned further about the crew at the Autobot base recently because Optimus Prime wanted to know about said Decepticons he knew were on board at the time, but she refused to divulge any information, stating her case that if they were trouble then they would have surfaced, but they hadn't. And so Optimus chose to respect her decision not to tell them any more about the situation, he however taking note of the fact to remain vigilant should anything crop up later.

He was also adamant in trying to contact the Captain of the Genesis. He had been informed that the Captain was still online and functional, but uncontactable. She also had chosen privacy over socialisation.

Needless to say the whole situation with the missing ship's crew had personally irked Optimus somewhat with their want to not get involved in the war between the two Cybertronian factions, but he understood they had a right to their freedom but the issue of the ships cargo still had to be dealt with.

Francine was also looked for a lot, due to the connections to her company and also the fact she had made herself some friends out of Blaster, Jazz and Wheeljack. Said scientist was always contacting her for a chat or asking her to share her thoughts on one project or another about some scientific or technological matter. Blaster and Jazz just loved her conversation and annoyed her quite often with chatter.

And when Vanessa was in her robot mode identity as Vanguard, she was often chased after by her brother whom she had now become fully reacquainted with. But she wanted to reacquaint herself with another of the Autobots who, as it seemed, was avoiding her, and she noticed it almost straight away, believing he was doing it on purpose. That was something she would eventually take care of when the opportunity presented itself.

Rusty on the other hand was spending all her spare time at the Autobot base now that she was allowed to see them when she wanted, especially Smokescreen, a like minded underhanded individual like herself and also Ratchet, who had become very fond of her it seemed. Vanguard visited less often than the others did, having her own business to take care of.

Both Francine and Vanessa walked out to greet the Autobots. The various windows of the hall allowed an almost full view of the inside of it into every corner.

Upstairs on the third floor there were a few windows open, wafting out some familiar scents that caught Sunstreaker's attention, and he moved away from Wheeljack and Jazz to investigate.

When Jazz caught sight of Francine, he gave a hearty welcome, "They told me at th'house that y'were here so I thought I'd drop in an' say hi." He thumbed to the farmhouse in the distance.

"Hi!" She grinned, "And what's your excuse?" She asked Wheeljack, "Not going to ask for any more explosive materials are you? You know what Ratchet would say to that if he got hold of another batch I'd donated to you!"

Wheeljack laughed at that remark, knowing full well how it had turned out.

"Well this is certainly an unexpected pleasure!" Vanessa said, half sarcastically as she had been expecting the Autobots to find them at the garage eventually. "I don't believe I've met any of you yet." She tried to cover up the fact she already knew who they were and had actually met them but didn't want them to know that yet. "Frankie are you going to introduce us?" Jazz noticed the other female and she politely waved to them all.

"This is Jazz, Wheeljack and Sunstreaker." Francine pointed to each in turn, politely introducing them to play along with Vanguard's cover,

After that she turned to Francine and said, "I'm going back upstairs to jam, see you later ok." And with that she left.

"Looks like it's just you an' us!" Jazz chimed to Francine as he watched Vanessa leave.

"So, seriously? What can we do for you boys this time?" She looks directly at Wheeljack again. Last time she had given him some items in good faith and then Ratchet found out. Not one of her best decisions, especially when Wheeljack had blown himself up with said items and gotten injured.

Wheeljack rubbed the back of his helm sheepishly, "If it's alright with you, I won't ask again, lest I incur the wrath of a certain Medic whose name I won't mention!"

Both of them laughed.

Sunstreaker had in the meantime gone quiet as he had been observing someone through the open window on the upper level of the studio. Francine's friend Aurora Sabre was in her art studio working. It was almost three stories up but he could just see in the window.

It wasn't long before the artist in question realised she was being watched and came over to the window, slammed it loudly and pulled the curtains closed, to prevent any further surveillance of her work.

"How rude?" Sunstreaker objected.

"She ain't tha friendly type Sunny." Jazz replied. 'Trust me, I know!"

"Especially when you call her on her private phone at 3am in the morning after I gave Sideswipe a number you weren't supposed to call till I told you to." Francine mouthed quietly, then continued in her normal volume, "She isn't all that friendly most of the time anyway!"

"Sounds like someone we know." Wheeljack queried as both he and Jazz look at Sunstreaker at the same time.

"That's what I said to Sideswipe!" Jazz quipped.

"What?" The yellow Lamborghini responded when looked at, oblivious to the conversation. He had become distracted by the artist in the studio who didn't want any attention.

"Never mind Sunny, never mind!" Jazz muses.

She laughed to herself, "You still trying to get her signature for your music collection then, despite the fact we have the concert coming up and you'll have every opportunity to get it then?"

"Tryin' in vain so far!" He joked, "But I'll get it!"

"Good luck getting it before then!" Francine mused, knowing how persistent Jazz had already been in trying to get her signature and how annoyed she currently was with him stalking her everywhere for it thus far. She noticed Wheeljack was looking out over the junkyard, "Go on. Go get what you need."

She watched Wheeljack wander off and then turned back to Jazz. "The answer's still no by the way." She had noted Jazz seemed distracted.

He knew that Francine had knowledge pertaining to the Genesis' ship's survivors, but Francine didn't mention much, she had however told him, she knew about Reignfire and what he did, stating that Vanguard had told her.

"If Reignfire wants to show himself to you and talk about what happened, then let him do it in his own time. Like Vanguard told Optimus, if he or any of the rest of those ex-'Cons wanted to make trouble with you Autobots or anyone else, they would have done so already right? From what I know about his reputation and history with you Autobots he wouldn't hide unless he had a reason to now would he? It's not his style, is it?"

Jazz thought about it a moment and had to agree with her logic. The apparently former Decepticon General never hid from anyone for any reason, preferring to stand in the light and glory of the Decepticon cause, subtlety and quiet was not his forte at all.

He had come across some intel about the former General before the ships disappearance, but had disregarded it when he had heard about his and Blaster's bondmates. But now he wasn't so sure whether that information could be true or not. Not that he didn't believe Decepticons couldn't change or come good, it was just very unlikely.

He decided to give Francine and Vanguard the benefit of the doubt, despite the fact that his spark wanted some form of recompense for his sparkmate's termination and the Intelligence Officer in him wanted to find out the truth and gather more information on it. Right now he just had to put that part of himself on pause till he could find out more about what as going on.

He was just about to ask something of Francine when he spotted Aurora walking out of the studio with a painting wrapped up under one arm and a case of something in the other hand. He watched her carry the items over to her car and put them in the back. He then moved over in front of the car to try and persuade her of something, crouching down to get to her level.

"Can I get your autograph?" He begged charmingly. "Please?"

"No." She stated dryly, then she got into her Reventon, started up the engine, backed up slightly and then drove around Jazz to leave. She left in such a hurry that Jazz got his vents all clogged up with dust and fell back on his aft in the process, earning some amusement from Francine.

"Better luck next time, eh Jazz!" She mused. Jazz just shrugged and got back up onto his peds again.

Sunstreaker began to get huffy due to the dust and asked, "Ugh, can we go now, this place is dusty and I'd rather not get my paint job dirty?"

"Sure Sunny, we can go. We might as well go find somethin' else to do on our day off!"

"Good." Commented Sunstreaker, "I'm so out of here." And he made a beeline for the gate, transformed and tore off down the road.

"Yeah ok, I'll just take care of Wheeljack shall I?" He called sarcastically after his golden companion.

"What's his rush?" Wheeljack asked. He had come back with an armful of parts and was having trouble keeping them all in place almost dropping the lot on his peds.

Jazz shrugged, "Just Sunny being Sunny. Maybe he had things to do and di'n wanna hang out with me an' you, anymore 'Jack." He paused a moment then moved to help his friend. "I'll help ya pack 'em."

Wheeljack passed the items over and transformed for him, while Jazz and Francine helped pack the items.

"Oh hey I almost forgot!" Jazz exclaimed as he transformed, "Tha main reason I came ta find ya today Frankie was to tell ya Prime agreed to the concert an' he wants you to drop by and go over some security measures for the organisin' with Red Alert, our security director and some humans from the local base."

"Red Alert?" She queried, "Is he the red and white 'Fire Chief' Lamborghini who acts like something crawled up his tailpipe?"

Wheeljack, despite being in car mode burst out laughing. Jazz, very amused himself, replied, "Yeah that'd be him!"

"Great! That means I'm going to be stuck in a boring old meeting with that stiff as well as with Prowl who is even more boring!" She whined. "From what you've told me about Red Alert, he reminds me of some of the people on my board of directors. If I didn't need to keep some of the old fashioned business types around then I'd have a crew of all party people to have some fun with!"

"I know that feeling." Wheeljack responded. "The 'stiffs' as you so pointedly coined them, don't let me have much fun at all."

Jazz countered, "Y'think it might have somethin' t'do with tha fact you love blowin' stuff up 'Jack that everyone keeps their distance from ya, or don' let ya have tha kinda fun y'love havin'!"

"I know Jazz but still, can't anyone else at least take some interest in having some fun with me?"

"No one else is as insane as you are 'Jack." Jazz retorted and Wheeljack chuckled.

Francine added. "From what you tell me about your experiences, I'm surprised Ratchet hasn't killed you already!"

Wheeljack was sheepishly laughing, "Yeah well, about that…!"

Jazz chuckled, "There's been heapsa times ol' Ratch has threatened to do all sortsa harm t'Jack if he didn't stop tryin' ta delib'rately blow himself ta kingdom come, but…"

Wheeljack interjected "…But he won't because I'm his best friend, that and in a way, I help to stop him from going crazy too. This war of ours can do strange things to the mind."

"And you're a prime example of that with all your experiments I'd say!" Frankie joked. She knew what war was like, having seen how it affects humans in a similar fashion via PTSD.

Jazz had noticed it had been quite some time since they let Sunstreaker drive off. "Ya know I think we better go after Sunny. Without Sides', he's probably tried to run over some poor human by now if they tried to cut him off or somethin'."

Both the cars revved their engines and said their goodbyes to Francine and drove out the gate onto the main road, oblivious to a truck that was entering the compound as they were departing.

Before she could go and join Vanessa to finish off some practice time, Francine had to deal with the driver and his passengers.

In the cab was a tall and bulky olive skinned male who looked like he was in his late fifties. The other two were female, one younger the other older, Vanguard's Captain.

"What did they want?" The Captain asked as she approached Francine.

She responded, "Jazz still wants to talk to him." She looked over at the olive skinned male who was helping the young girl retrieve her science books from the cab seat, as it was so high. The driver, being that he towered above her, reaching over seven foot in height, over her meagre six foot, retrieved the books and handed them to her.

"Thanks Grandpa!" The youth responded and he ruffled her hair in response.

"If only they could see you now!" Francine mused at the driver. The Captain grinned also.

"Family has a tendency of doing that to people, putting things in perspective and making you realise there are more important things in life than war." The man smiled as he responded.

"Everything will come to light about the past in due time. That much I am sure of." The Captain interjected.

Francine smiled as she watched the Captain and the driver begin to unpack cargo from the truck, then went inside with the young female to join Vanessa.


	7. Chapter 7

*Part 7*  
*

Vanguard looked down at the lifeless body of her friend now lying on a slab in one of the Medical bay's private rooms. She sighed loudly, she was tired and weary from the battle that had brought them both here.

The tall and dark body of her friend had been covered up with a cloth. This gesture was not something normally done by Cybertronians, but she knew it was one of the many humanised habits the Autobots had picked up since they awakened on Earth.

Ratchet had already tried removing her from the Medical bay amidst the post battle chaos, so that he and his crew could get on with the repairs that had resulted from the disastrous charity concert and the aftermath of the surprise Decepticon attack. But Vanguard had refused vehemently to move and stood her ground.

It was unlike Ratchet to back down in this matter considering they needed the bench. So in the end, it took the combined efforts of four strong Autobots and also Vanguard to move the heavy limp body to the floor.

The door to the room was wide open and Ratchet was just finishing up the repairs and wiping all the remaining fluids and grease from his hands after making the final seals on Jazz's battered chest plate. This, he had sustained during the fight.

As he leaned on the door frame he noticed the dead look on Vanguard's faceplate. "You know? From what the twins tell me, if it wasn't for your friend here, Jazz would be a goner by now. So at least her termination wasn't in vain." He tried to comfort her. "Shame we never got to meet her."

Jazz wasn't very mobile right now but he had directly disobeyed Ratchet by coming over to see Vanguard as someone had told him she was in one of the side rooms with his saviour and he wanted to thank them.

When Ratchet noticed him there, he berated him. "Hey get back to your bench, you're supposed to be resting!"

"Hey chill Ratch' m'man! I was just gonna thank that femme who saved my spark is all." He put his hands up in defeat.

"Well you won't have anything to say. The femme took a direct shot from Megatron's fusion cannon. She's dead as a doornail right now, and so will you be too if you don't get back to your bench and let those freshly welded seams cool properly."

Jazz managed to sidle past Ratchet for a moment before the CMO started dragging him back to his bed. Vanguard raised her head when she heard Jazz talking to her and looked directly at him. "Well hey Van'!" He said sorrowfully, "Sorry to hear 'bout ya friend, an' sorry that I couldn' say thanks an' all." Jazz knew all too well what the pain of loss felt like.

Vanguard looked at him for a moment then turned her attention back to the cloth covering her friend on the floor and didn't say a word to Jazz or Ratchet. She didn't have the usual expression on her faceplate that someone would have for a fallen comrade either and it troubled Ratchet, he felt Vanguard was taking it very badly.

As Ratchet dragged the Special Ops Officer away he talked to the medic. "Mus' be a real good friend'o hers. She didn't say a single word at all."

"Dealing with the death of a friend close or otherwise is never easy, especially when she had the injuries she did. She had no hope, not even with my help. She was already offline before I got to her. Your spark was still pulsing when we found you both though, and Vanguard insisted we bring her friend's body back with us too."

"We?" Jazz asked.

"Yeah the twins found you after we got your distress signal. They thought it was you who got hit when they heard Megatron's fusion cannon go off, but found you out and her offline." Ratchet told him.

"Yeah I r'member getting' beat up but good an' got knocked down. Megs lined up his scope for the blast but that's it. After that I thought I was a goner f'sure. Pity 'bout the femme. Didn' even get a chance t'meet her first."

In the room, Vanguard was starting to pick up the signs that she was waiting for. The cloth that was covering the motionless body started to rise slightly as the ventilation of air through the body under it started to finally cycle for start up and then it rose, uncovered by the once lifeless body underneath it.

"I was worried there for a bit. You don't usually take this long to come back online again, even after terminal damage, _like_ that." She said pointing at the gaping hole in the femmes chest.

The previously dead femme moved the servos of her neck and rotated the gears. She moved the motors of her hands, shoulders and arms and then tested her spinal array by sitting up. "Well it's not like I have a choice." The other femme stressed groggily.

She realised she had made a mistake by getting up too soon. Her cranial unit was spinning from her lack of energy. She needed some sunlight for a recharge after coming back online the way she did. It always takes massive amounts of energy to pull off the feats her body performed medically.

She turned her head towards the white figure on the other side of the room and indicated she needed help to get off the floor.

Vanguard understood that at times her friend was weak after such feats. It never ceased to amaze her of just how many times and from how many situations her friend was able to respark her core and bring herself back from the dead so to speak, to self heal and make herself functional and whole once again.

She had already noticed that after the ventilation systems had started up and the cloth had been removed, the damage surrounding the former gaping whole as well as the surrounding burns and cracks, were already reconstituting and disappearing as if they had never happened. It was a strange thing to watch for a Cybertronian to do, but the femme had these amazing medical nanytes and other programs in her that did all this healing work. And by the time she helped the other up, the femme was completely unscathed as though nothing had ever happened at all.

As Vanguard provided the femme support, she noticed her friend had also grabbed the white cloth that had been covering her. Vanguard didn't understand why her friend did that, but she was sure there would be a logical reason.

As she helped her friend outside to the main part of the Medical bay, they were confronted with a few different things.

Other than Jazz and Ratchet who were heavily engaged in a conversation and didn't notice them, Ratchet was still trying to get Jazz to lay down and rest, and so far had only gotten him to sit on a bench with his peds hanging off. Swoop and First Aid were also there and they noticed Vanguard and her 'supposedly' dead friend first.

When Swoop screeched, fell off the back of his bench and fainted on the floor, it got Ratchet's attention and he turned to deal with it and stopped his conversation with Jazz.

"Ok, what the frag happened here? Perfectly healthy Dinobots don't just scream and faint like a ditzy femme."

"Ah Ratch' m'man, you'd better look over there?" Jazz indicated pointing over to the entrance of the side room where Vanguard had been and was now standing with a taller dark femme balanced over her shoulders who was very much now alive and almost well, if not for her continual unbalanced steps.

Very shakily the black femme spoke, "Ok so which one of you slaggers put this drape over me?" She demanded, venting heavily and dropping the cloth due to a weak grip.  
First Aid, not knowing what to do about the presence of the femme, pointed at Ratchet then turned to help the offline Dinobot on the floor.

"That would be me." Ratchet stated firmly, trying not to be bothered by the fact a formerly dead femme was now talking to him with no visual evidence of any previous injuries. He went to face Vanguard and the femme who had approached.

Still leaning on Vanguard, she replied, "Next time don't bother. That thing was blocking up my ventilation unit."

"You were kind of _dead_ at the time!" He screeched in defence of his gesture. He continued to launch his tirade of verbal 'what fors' at the femme but she blithely ignored the CMO.

"Oof." Vanguard exhaled. She asked her friend "Hey you think you could turn on your stabilisers, you're very heavy right now." She propped up the femme against one of the repair bay benches and the femme decided to sit down and rest herself while Vanguard got her strength back. Her friend was quite heavy when her stabilisers were off. Vanguard was grateful for the rest, but she still had to get her friend out of here and back home again and away from the looming questions that were sure to come forward about her friends resurrection.

While listening to Ratchet go off his verbal rocker, Jazz saw it as an opportunity to go and help First Aid. He sidled over to the other white Medic and offered whatever help he could while Ratchet was apparently busy.

The femme wasn't helping Ratchet's temper, "Are you done now?"

"No I am not…" He replied grouchily, and continued to mouth off at her.

"Just shut it already." She interrupted. But this only made him keep going and she rolled her optics in response.

Jazz was snickering under his ventilators at the femmes gall to bait Ratchet and still be in one piece. But he supposed, after coming back from the dead, she wasn't going to let anyone intimidate her.

Both he and First Aid had managed to slap the Dinobot around a bit and wafted some energon under his olfactory sensors to bring him online again.

Swoop got up under his own power when he was online but became wary when he saw the femme. "I don't like this." He cringed behind First Aid, "She was dead and now she's not. I saw her dead body with Ratchet when they brought her in here. Now she's not dead." When the femme made a face at him, he screamed, "Zombie!" Before either Jazz or First Aid could stop him, he was out the Medical bay doors screaming about zombies and the walking dead.

Jazz looked at First Aid, and the other Medic just looked back at him and both shrugged.

A little while later. "Jazz ah think that's th'last tahme you sit up late an' watch zombie movies with th'Dinobots." Ironhide exclaimed as he walked into the Medical bay. "He's gone an' run off tellin' everyone there's a zombie runnin' 'round in th'Medical bay."

"And I take it that is the reason for your visit Ironhide, to see if it was true." Ratchet replied, momentarily distracted from his verbal abuse upon the femme.

"Yep. Not that I believe in anything lahke that, but…" He said flatly. "Everyone else is in th'hall is actin' weird ov'r it on account'o Swoop sayin' what he did an' they followed me here t'see. Got 'em holed up outsahde ta keep 'em outta yer way though."

"Well as you can see Ironhide, she is apparently _very_ much alive." He points to the tall black femme sitting on a nearby bench next to Vanguard.

"Ya mean t'tell me she _was_ dead?" Ironhide exclaimed, shocked. "She couldn'a been? It's impossible fer anyone t'bring 'emselves back from th'dead, 'less they were a Prahme or somethin'?"

Ratchet was about to start talking when he looked over towards the open doorway to the hall. He could see a few faces peaking in, all staring at the very living form of one very tall black femme. One glare was all it took from Ratchet for some of them to recede or leave. "Get back to work or get lost you lot, this isn't some freak show." He yelled. Then Grimlock walked in.

"Me Grimlock not leave. Me want to see why Swoop run like chicken bot from here. He say there zombie bot in here who scared him. So Me want see this zombie and make it dead again so Swoop stop being chicken." Swoop peered his head around the corner but wouldn't come in.

The femme looked at Vanguard who just smiled meekly back. The black femme sighed and decided to herself she would have been better off not getting involved in the Autobot's affairs at all by trying to save Jazz to begin with. "All this trouble just to save one life." She muttered.

"You the zombie bot then?" He asked the femme.

"Seriously, do I look _dead_ to you?" She replied sarcastically.

Grimlock looked at her harshly but then turned his attention back to the hall momentarily and saw a very meek Swoop hiding behind one side of the open door. Swoop nodded meekly to his leader and silently indicated that this femme was the one who scared him.

"Swoop say you zombie bot, so Me going to pound you dead again so him not scared anymore."

Before objections could be raised by the four Officers present, Grimlock had approached her and taken a swing at her. She dodged at the last second and let his momentum take him forward over the top of the table and down the other side. All she did was move aside to the other end of the table with as little effort as was possible, unfortunately knocking Vanguard onto the floor.

Ratchet was annoyed, now he had an oversized dino-oaf sprawled on the floor of his Medical bay. He helped Vanguard first then went to deal with Grimlock.

The femme grunted, "Hmph." She has to move with as little effort as possible to save what little energy she had at the moment.

Vanguard sighed and shook her head, massaging her furrowed brow.  
Ratchet was already at Grimlock's side giving him medical aid and Jazz, Ironhide and every one else were standing there dumbstruck.

It was then Vanguard noticed her friend sway. Apparently it had taken all her concentration to do what she just did, and her energy levels weren't quite up to scratch yet. Thankfully, Vanguard noticed. She caught the femme just as she was about to slip off the bench onto the floor, "Need…sun…recharge." Her friend murmured before passing out, dropping unceremoniously onto the floor.

She was grateful her friend had since turned her gravity stabilisers on and she was easy for her to lift this time and carry and so situated her friend over her shoulder struts and proceeded to leave the Medical bay.

"Look guys. I'm grateful for the help and sorry for the trouble but I should get her out of here before something else happens."

Jazz blocked her way out the Medical bay, "Aw com'on, I'm sure ol' Doc Ratch'll be able t'fix somethin' up for 'er."

Ratchet had already done his part with Grimlock and let the dinobot get up on hi own, insisting he leave the femme be now. He came over to Vanguard and supported Jazz's comment. "I'm afraid I have to agree with him. She needs time to recover from whatever it is that's happening to her, so I suggest you take her back to the same room she was in and let her do just that. I will see if I can get some solar energy rechargers for her." Ratchet replied having heard the femme's murmurs. "That and I want to give her a thorough medical examination."

Vanguard did care about her friend's welfare, but she was more worried about her friend's reaction to an examination, as she was extremely touchy and bad tempered when not left alone.

"Oh and Vanguard?" The white femme turned to the medic as he spoke to her. "Prowl said he wanted to talk to you about something when you were available. So when you're done getting your friend comfortable, go. We will watch over her and you can go see Prowl."

Vanguard was reluctant to go, but she warned Ratchet, "No examinations, just leave her to recharge somewhere, she isn't kindly about that sort of thing and doesn't like to be touched by people she doesn't know." Ratchet nodded and understood. "Her defence system still works even when she is offline and she has a penchant for sharp objects and inflicting a lot of pain."

The last thing Vanguard heard as she left the room was, "And you get back to your own rest." Jazz still wasn't listening to the Doctor's orders apparently.

Vanguard made her way to where she was told Prowl had his office and pressed the button to announce her entry.

"Come in." Came a familiar voice from within.

When she entered, Prowl was talking to Smokescreen about a few things. "Good. Bring me the rest of the files for review when you are able and then we can present a summary to Prime about upcoming leave."

Smokescreen, upon seeing Vanguard smirked and said, "Well I guess I better be going, I'm sure you two have lots to chat about!"

Prowl gave Smokescreen a quizzical look, "What do you mean?"

"Never mind Prowl!" Smokescreen said amused, then turned on his peds and left, letting the door slide closed behind him.

Both of them had their optics pinned on the Psychologists exit. "Something fishy is going on with him?" Prowl said rubbing his chin plate.

Vanguard shrugged and found a chair to slide over to the front side of Prowl's desk and sat down. "Well?"

"Well what?" Came the answer as Prowl had gone back to the work on the desk.  
"Ratchet said you wanted to talk to me?"

"Ah yes." He said amidst neatly stacking datapads on his desk. "I guess now is a good a time as any as I have been putting this off."

Vanguard had been putting off the inevitable too. "At least stop what you're doing and look at me while you're talking Prowl." She pleaded as she put her hand down on his to stop him from fiddling further with any datapads.

He gave her a flat look for doing so and she sat back down again to listen to what he had to say.

"We should both stop putting this off. I was hoping we wouldn't have to talk about all this in one go but..." She said.

"Perhaps…" He trailed off; somewhat disappointed in himself for putting the situation off, but she had just admitted to be feeling the same, and it made things slightly better.

But something had to start it off. He got up from his chair and came around to her.

She got up on his approach wondering what he was doing. He came up to her much taller form, his helm only just coming halfway over her shoulder struts. He looked down to the floor and clenched his fists. He thought for someone who was as good as he was at most things, that he would be able to deal with a few simple emotional matters of his own, but after all this time he was still emotionally shy and almost always let logic take over so he didn't have to deal with emotional problems, which was why it had taken him so long to get around to this.

But relationships were anything but simple and he knew it, even for one that had been put off abruptly for both of them nearly five million Earth years ago, something Prowl had pushed into the back of his processors for fear the pain, hurt and loss of Vanguard in the past would overcome him and affect his work as it was doing now since she reappeared recently.

Vanguard simply smiled to herself and took matters into her own hands. She scooped him up around the mid section and pulled him into a bear hug and swung him around before putting him down again. "I missed you." She admitted lovingly before putting him down, happy that he was just as hesitant as she was to deal with all this.

He smiled gently admitting the same old feelings. "I'm glad you're still alive." He was surprised that he was even able to say just that, even after she had been gone from his life for so very long.

He allowed himself to be hugged again by the taller white femme after the admission, but this time she was gentler about it. "I'll take that to mean you missed me too!" She mused, before she gently placed her hands on the back of his helm and brought his head to rest below hers. She knew how quiet he was emotionally and that it was probably the best she could hope for from him, but at least it was a start.

Prowl had to admit he really missed the unpredictable and outward emotional nature that this femme had often given him along with the unspoken passion that went with their relationship in the past. Being with her was like having a female version of his best friend around, as Jazz was just as illogical, outwardly emotional and spontaneous as Vanguard could be.

"Do you mind if we talk about what happened today?" He muttered from being buried under the taller femmes form.

"Oh that?" She had not wanted to reveal her other identity but she had blown her cover it seemed, during the events that had transpired.

"Yes, _that_." He said looking up at her. "Just when were you going to tell me about your secret identity as a…Pretender?" He had a hard time getting his mind around the fact, he didn't know what else to call it. Other Autobots had modes like this and it was all he had to compare it to. Pretender shells allowed those Autobots to disguise themselves as humans and other biological species to a degree, but none so to the degree that Vanguard had, it had completely fooled him into thinking that Vanessa Gordon was just an ordinary human. Pretenders could be picked up by Cybertronian scanners, but Vanguard had only registered to him as a human when she was in her bio-form and he was none the wiser when he saw her human self at the concert and introduced himself as though they were complete strangers.

He kind of understood now why she smirked at him back then at the concert in recognition.

"Don't know. Had to do something to fit in with the general populace over the years. We couldn't always hide from them as machines inside vehicles with holomatter avatars." She paused, "I…guess I held off telling you because, well, you've had enough grief in your life, I didn't want to complicate matters more."

"I guess it was the best course of action to take in a logical sense."

"Yeah well I was never very logical anyway." She mused, "That's your department!"

"True." This made him laugh warmly at the lack of perfect sense it made.

He took it better than she thought he would and she was grateful for that. This was just the first step as far as she was concerned.

The femme was online once again and still slightly groggy. This was a normal reaction for her when she had to perform this feat, swaying in and out of consciousness. It took her out of sorts for a while till she could get her energy centre realigned again, especially if she didn't have the right energy to charge herself with.

She was rolled over on her left side, facing the wall in the same room she had woken up in before and she groaned. _'Here still? Where's Vanguard?'_ She thought to herself. She could also feel some light shining solar energy on her back and was grateful to whoever set it up for her, giving her a chance to recharge at least, even if it wasn't real sunlight that her systems preferred.

Jazz had been dozing on and off, watching the femme. Ratchet had given up getting him to rest on another bench inside the main part of the medbay, so he let the black and white mech rest by watching the recharging femme as long as he stayed put. "Back in the land o'th'livin' again?" He noticed.

The femme supposed it was his feeble attempt at humour. She thought by now that the whole base had heard about what she was and how she recoved.

She turned her head back to the wall and lowered it onto the bench and bellowed, "Go away."

"Well if that's th'way you wan' it, then fine! Personally I'm enjoying the view!" He grinned. The times he had been awake and watching her, he had been ogling her form, especially since her back side was facing him.

She got the gist of his reference almost immediately and got up as far as she could to talk to him. "Has anyone ever told you you're annoying?"

He just grinned and leant back in the chair, slouching and putting his hands behind his head case. "Darlin' I get told that almost every day." He mused coolly.

She nearly forgot herself when she had said what she did. Jazz didn't know about her other identity, none of the Autobots did, as far as she knew, at least not yet. But Jazz didn't take any hints and so he just kept the conversation going.

"So are there any more hot mama's like y'self back at wherever it is y'femmes live or are ya th'only one worth selling y'spark over like yourself?"

The upfront comment caught the femme off guard and she almost laughed at his boldness, instead her venting came out sounding like a scoff.

"Are you always like this with femmes?" She asked.

"Just the real good lookin' ones!"

She scoffed, "Well it won't work on everyone so keep on blathering aimlessly."

"Who says I have to try? Patience is a virtue after all, as the humans say. I can wait."

"Well the answer is going to be no, no matter how many times you ask."

If it was possible for Jazz to grin even broader than he did before, then he did. "Is that a challenge?" He asked coyly.

Prowl and Vanguard hadn't heard the door to Prowl's office slide open.  
Smokescreen came back to get some other reports he was working on and needed to finish but had forgotten before and he knew Prowl had left the door unlocked. He thought that the couple would have been done talking by now. But apparently not.

Prowl and Vanguard were in an embrace, and Vanguard had her hands on Prowl's aft.

Despite how amusing the scene was to him, he politely stammered his vocaliser to let them know he was there.

"Oh hello Smokey!" Vanguard grinned.

Prowl quickly did his best to regain his composure and pushed away from Vanguards embrace, not particularly happy being found doing something very unlike him, as well as doing it while on duty to boot. He was now rather embarrassed, especially at being caught out by one of his fellow soldiers. He asked Smokescreen why he had come back into his office.

"I needed to get some datapads I left behind." He replied.

The whole time Smokescreen talked, Prowl could tell he was grinning mentally and that made Prowl slightly nervous, something was definitely going on.

In the meantime Vanguard excused herself to return to the Medical bay to attend to her friend.

After she left, Smokescreen spoke up. "We were all wondering about when you two would hook up again."

Prowl had taken the datapads on his desk and turned away from his friend, he began to organise the datapads onto the shelf behind his desk. At the mention of Smokescreen's words, he almost dropped all the ones he was holding in the crook of his arm. He turned around and looked at him and knew something was definitely up. "What were you planning this time?" He questioned.

"Just a bet." He admitted. "Most of the Officers, including myself, were wondering when you two would hook up again."

"That was what you meant earlier." He sighed and sat down in his chair. "Who's idea was this bet?" He asked curiously.

But Prowl realized the answer as soon as he asked. They both said "Jazz" at the same time.

Prowl gave a light chuckle. "One thing I've learnt not to do is ever underestimate our Special Ops director."

Smokescreen replied nonchalantly, "I lost the bet though."

"Oh?" Prowl asked.

"My bet was for two days ago. I think Ratchet was the only one listed for today I believe."

"And you were handling all the credits I suppose?" Prowl thinned his optics at Smokescreen. He didn't approve of some of the activities that some of the other Autobots engaged in but, most of the betting was harmless and helped to heighten morale

Smokescreen grinned then grabbed his forgotten datapads and left.

"Just what am I going to do with him?" Prowl sighed to himself.

When Vanguard arrived back at the Medical bay, she found her friend was with Jazz and was not enjoying the company. The femme couldn't go very far as she was still too weak to walk anywhere alone and so was stuck with Jazz and whoever else came into the medibay. And Vanguard was also stuck here with her till she could be moved as far as she knew.

In the background outside the room, Jazz's audios could pick up a conversation between Ratchet and Smokescreen going on. "Dammit!" He muttered.

"Something wrong Jazz?" Vanguard asked.

"Nothin' much ladies. Be right back ok." And he disappeared out of the room.

"What was that about I wonder?" Vanguard said.

Her friend shrugged, "Here, help me up so I can walk around a bit."

Outside the room.

"You sure?" Jazz said.

"Yeah I'm sure. Just caught them snogging in Prowl's office." Smokescreen admitted. Vanguard could hear them and snickered.

Jazz looked back to the room and grinned, "Well Prowl sure is a sly dog ain't he!" Jazz laughed. "Dang it, I got the wrong month too!"

All the while Ratchet was smiling from the delivery of his credits.

Jazz looked at the pouch of credits, "Hey Ratchet?"

The CMO looked at the smaller black and white mech. He wasn't impressed. He knew Jazz had an idea that involved his newly acquired credits. "The answer is no." He said flatly.

"Aw com'on Ratch'!" He put his arm around the CMO, "This is a great idea!"

"If it involves some high grade then I might be interested." Ratchet grinned coyly.

Jazz returned the expression and then looked over at the side room where the two femmes were. "An' maybe some femmes too if we play our energon chips right, eh?"  
Smokescreen grinned. Ratchet said "Maybe."

Jazz took that as his cue to return back to the room and talk to the girls, but they were already having a conversation of their own before he arrived.

"Charm doesn't work on me, and I don't like people asking too many questions. You know I prefer privacy." The black femme remarked. "I find Jazz annoying."

"Not all the time, just when he wants something, I'm afraid it's just how he is," Vanguard began, "Besides, all those times he was bugging you for your autograph, I know you found it annoying, but you also found him interesting because he kept coming back for more when you were always telling him off for it. I remember you telling me that."

They had not heard Jazz at the door.

"Autograph?" He questioned.

Vanguard sighs and face palms herself.

Her friends growls at her for her mistake. "What do you want?" She snarls at Jazz.

Jazz was grinning. "Well this is certainly an interesting development." He looks at Vanguard. It seems he had guessed right about the mysterious femme.

"Well I already know that Vanguard here is also Vanessa Gordon, Private Detective extraordinaire and drummer for Sorority House." He sidled up to the black femme, "And that would make you Aurora Sabre correct?"

"What makes you think I'm going to admit to anything?" She loomed over him, and growled when he got too close.

"Well you certainly sound like Aurora Sabre. Besides I'd like ta know what y'name is so I know what t'call you." He tried to charm her.

"Good Luck with that!" The femme remarked.

Jazz looked from the sour expression on the black femme to Vanguard and said, "Well, even if she don' come, then you're mor'an welcome to come to th'party t'night."

"What are we celebrating?" Vanguard asked.

"Nothin' in particular. But you're welcome t'come an' invite your friend 'ere if ya want, any female friends that might also wan' t'come along, are welcome too."

The black femme shook her head as Vanguard looked at her and decided to lay back down to protest.

"Well I guess I'm in." Vanguard said to Jazz. "I'll give Rusty a call and see if she or any of the others may want to come along too ok."

Jazz asked the black femme, "You comin' then?"  
Without moving she answered flatly, " _No_."

Jazz was grinning, "So you gon 'tell me y'name?" He asked again.

She snarled at the black and white mech.

Jazz just smiled right back

Vanguard chuckled to herself. How was Shadow going to handle having someone like Jazz bothering her now. Hopefully Jazz would survive the experience.


	8. Chapter 8

*Part 8*  
*

Octane had been the only one present in the control room other than Soundwave when Laserbeak had returned to the Nemesis to report about the findings of his recent sojourn into the Ark to spy on the Autobots.

Even though he had just returned back from Cybertron with Astrotrain from a fuel run through the space bridge, neither of them had expected to be put straight back onto duty upon return.

What they had discovered was that their comrades had been in a recent battle with the Autobots and their new sympathisers at a human event and Hook as well as most of the other Constructicons were strut deep in making repairs to a fair few frontline soldiers, including two of the Seekers, Skywarp and Thundercracker. Both were severely injured and currently offline. Starscream was battered and beaten yet still online, and being tended to with the others.

The ones who usually did the monitor shifts, the three Reflector units, were all out for the count. Even a few of the Combaticons were up for repairs.

Neither of the two Triple changers had yet to find out what had hit them to cause so much damage but they could guess, considering their recent run ins with the Autobots' new femme friend who kept showing up and picking fights with the Decepticons, as well as the female entourage she was apparently with.

Swindle had just finished getting his shoulder joint repaired and came into the monitor room to get something and found one of the two triple changers there.  
Swindle asked surprised, "So when did you get back?"

"Not long ago." Octane murmured, clearly not impressed with the job he was assigned to do. It was either do it or face dismemberment for refusing, and he preferred to stay in one piece. He thought it not so bad considering how short staffed the Nemesis base was with the battle that had just happened, and he was being left alone to conduct his other activity.

Swindle wasn't paying attention to what Octane was doing with the screens. He had not expected the triple changers to be back yet and so asked, "Did you get it?"

Octane, without taking his optics off the screens, waved his hands in response, "Yeah." And he took something from his subspace pocket and handed a container to the Combaticon. He held out his other hand without even taking his optics off the screen. He was expecting his payment and was rewarded with a flask of premium oil that Swindle took from his own subspace pocket.

"What's this?" Swindle asked finally seeing what Octane was doing.

Octane smirked, "A little collection I made on the femme 'Bots, as well as pics of the femmes that are here on Earth!" He smirked maliciously. "I just wish we had some femme 'Cons here on the base to mess around with, it gets pretty boring with all of us mechs around here all the time."

Swindle caught the insinuation and smirked along with them. "Yeah I here ya. We need some fun, shame there are none anymore. Megatron saw to that, damn Autobots get everything, femmes included." He was just about to offer Octane a deal for the pictures when a familiar swoosh of the doors to the monitor room indicated the doors opening.

Octane quickly put his peds down from on top of the console, exited the files on the screen and removed his device in record time. Then he quickly stood up straight next to Swindle as Megatron came sauntering in, and the two saluted.

Megatron gave them both the visual once over, not trusting these two to be alone together. He figured they were both up to something but it would have to wait. He looked at Swindle. "Don't you have some work to do?"

"Yes S-sir." The Combaticon stammered meekly and left the room quickly.  
Then he turned to Octane. "And you, get back to work." He said flatly, before turning to go to one of the other consoles elsewhere in the room with Soundwave.

Astrotrain had come in behind the two, and quickly went to his assigned workstation on the opposite side to where Octane now was without a word.

Octane could see the mark on the side of his roommate's faceplate from where someone or something had hit him.

Most of them had come off worse for wear after he and Astrotrain had arrived back from Cybertron. Neither were in Megatron's good books right now, as both had failed to bring along the full shipment of energon that was due from Shockwave.

In between receiving the shipment from Shockwave and taking it to the lift shaft for the space bridge to send to Earth, they were accosted by several of Elita One's female Autobots. Five Autobots to two Decepticons, namely two Triple Changer Decepticons, and yet the femmes still managed to make off with part of the load once they had subdued the two mechs.

But being that Astrotrain was the one responsible for the mission, he received the brunt of the punishment. Octane had been verbally grinded and was expecting more but he, along with Astrotrain were given monitor duty till further notice. All on account of their brethrens recent battle, since most were in their medical bay.

Megatron was not happy with the now measly supply they had and would have to plan out an attack run to retrieve fuel from some human factory soon before Shockwave would be ready with another load. Not that he wanted to, he admitted to himself that he preferred fuel from home as their refining methods and the raw materials they had on hand here on Earth weren't enough for what they wanted or liked, and often their runs were stopped or foiled in some way by the Autobots and those annoying humans. They would have to make do till they could get enough from Shockwave next time.

The Communications Officer had been loading the data from Laserbeak's recent jaunt and was waiting for it to come up on the screen.

Megatron had of course waited till he had been fully repaired by Hook and Scrapper in their medical bay before attending to what Soundwave wanted. First he had dealt with Astrotrain, then discussed the matter privately with Soundwave in his office. He hadn't believed what he was told and demanded to see the footage, so they had come here. "Well Soundwave?" Bellowed Megatron.

"The recording is loading right now Lord Megatron." He responded in his monotonous voice. "Playing now."

While Octane should have been paying attention to the monitors, he did sneak one or two looks behind him at the screen and noticed a different femme on it that he had never seen. Someone tall, dark and very good looking as far as he was concerned.  
Megatron stated, "This is the femme that tried to stop me from terminating that insufferable Autobot, Jazz?"

"Yes Lord Megatron." Came the flat reply.

Octane meanwhile gave a low key yet shrill whistle in admiration of the femme's form on the video that got Megatron's attention.

"Octane, get back to work!" Snarled Megatron.

Octane sputtered in his intakes, realising he had made a noise out loud and squeaked, "Yes Sir." And then put his head back towards the screens he was supposed to be observing.

 _'So is she good lookin'?'_ Came a curious reply on his private comms. It was a question from the other side of the consoles.

 _'Uh Astro' she's kind of dead? Got hit full bore by the boss's fusion cannon. But yeah she was real good lookin'.'_ Octane replied.

 _'Shame then.'_ Astrotrain said dryly.

 _'Yeah pity.'_ Octane mumbled to himself.

The monitors were set up in a way to make a circle in the centre of the security office, where Soundwave more often than not worked from. Octane was on one console and Astrotrain was at another, out of view of where Megatron and Soundwave were, but unlike Octane, he knew better now than to cause any more trouble for himself with Megatron.

Octane sent his monitor companion, a picture of the orange and black femme he had heard, had beaten up Motor Master more than once. Wild Rider had sent him some pictures before he had left on the mission to go to Cybertron and bring back Astrotrain with him and the cargo of energon. So Astrotrain had yet to see any of them or find out any worthwhile information as he had been off world since before they had shown up, and he appreciated the visuals.

 _'She ain't half bad, but then I've seen better. She certainly looks built enough to have done to Motor Master what I heard she did with the injuries he has.'_ Octane had been able to see the extent of some dents in the Stunticon leader's chassis when he had seen Scrapper hammering out the dents in the medical bay. _'She would certainly be interesting enough for us!'_ He then sent his comrade another picture of her and Astrotrain couldn't help but admire the form she had in this one.

 _'If I ever run into her in a battle I will definitely have to introduce myself, even if she is an Autobot sympathiser.'_ He commented.

 _'Your kind of femme huh?'_

 _'Definitely, I don't like those small lightly built racey types. I like mine heavily built and armoured, pit, I don't even care if they're ugly and boy this one looks like she could belt me into slag any cycle!'_

Octane had a small laugh to himself, half the time he couldn't figure out if Astrotrain was a sadist or a masochist, especially when it came to femmes and having his way with them or letting them have their way with him.

"Octane, I thought I told you to get back to work?"

Octane cringed. He had been laughing out loud and it had gotten Megatron's attention again. He was waiting for a punishment that never came. He looked around and saw that Megatron had turned his attention back to the video and was engrossed in the visuals he was seeing.

 _'You can be such an idiot Octane!'_ Commented Astrotrain through their private comms.

 _'Speak for yourself.'_ He retorted.

 _'Yeah whatever. Not as much as what Starscream is, besides, Megatron hates you more than he hates me remember, and that was before we got jumped back home by those femme 'Bots.'_

Octane grunted and grinded his dental plates and quietly went back to work. He actually liked Starscream. The Air Commander, as treacherous as he was with everyone else, always got along well with him and they'd become amicable companions, only because he wasn't ambitious as Starscream was, so the Seeker kept him close. He didn't take kindly to anyone bad mouthing Starscream; despite evidence to the contrary of the Seekers mishaps and occasional stupidity, and he didn't like being compared to those same things either.

Meanwhile over at the video consoles, thoughts were coalescing in Megatron's cerebral processors. What he remembered from the battle was a dark coloured femme coming out of nowhere and denying him the termination of the Autobot's Special Ops Officer who had been caught unaware by his presence, a very rare moment indeed considering Jazz's reputation.

After beating the black and white almost senseless, he was about to deliver a point blank cannon blast to terminate him when she got in the way. It however had not affected his battle sensors. He quickly found who pushed him, locked on and fired, despite the fact he was now on the ground. He had hit the femme in the centre of the chest and it had sent her flying. She was down; most definitely terminated from such a close range blast of his fusion cannon and he remembered clearly that she didn't get up again.

It had been just about the time that their battle had turned elsewhere and he had issued a retreat, due to the fact the Autobots obtained reinforcements and had driven them back.

At the time he had wondered who the femme was and how she had gotten that close to him without his sensors picking her up. She was not one of the mysterious others that had shown up out of nowhere before, but she was probably from the same group.

But he still couldn't believe what Laserbeak had recorded; the femme had seemingly brought herself back to life and healed the wound he had given her point blank with no medical aid at all. And he wanted this technology for his Decepticons. If it could be adapted, then the Autobots wouldn't stand a chance, the war would be theirs and they would have Cybertron for their own.

"Soundwave, send Laserbeak back to the Autobot base and see what else we can find out about this femme." Megatron couldn't help but feel that there was something familiar about her though. As he watched the screen with her talking to Jazz and another white femme. She reminded him of someone from the past that he thought was terminated, or was she?

"At once Commander." Soundwave replied.

Megatron then left to go to his office to think some more upon this someone from his past, someone that held some form of personal importance to him at some stage, both before and during the early parts of the war.

Laserbeak wasn't impressed that he was sent immediately to the Autobot base.

He had been flying for over an hour now and had been grumbling to himself most of the time.

He had been so engrossed in his processing that he didn't see the dark form looming above him until it was too late.

A very dark mecha beast creature had been flying above the clouds above the Ultracon for quite some time now. Not because it was following the cassette, but because it happened to be going in the same direction, that and it was cloaked and so Laserbeak couldn't see it or sense it. When the winged mecha finally saw the small bird, it thought it a tasty little morsel with which to satisfy some of its energy reserves after its long sojourn in the sky.

All Laserbeak was able to do was get off an emergency distress signal to its master before being swallowed in one gulp. It had been too fast from when the beast dropped its cloak to when it went for Laserbeak for the bird to do anything defensive. The creature was already heading back home to its den hidden in the mountains of Oregon, but it decided to land instead, not far from the Autobot base it seemed.  
It knew about the other machines, the two footers it called them, but it didn't care if they were there or not. They couldn't see the creature, its personal energy field operated on a different frequency that ordinary Cybertronian technology couldn't pick up.  
It was having problems with the mecha bird it had swallowed whole. And it was unsettling the digestive system of this large formidable beast.

If it had not been for the fact that its Master had called out to it to follow out some instructions, then it would not be returning home at all, it would still be flying freely as it saw fit and not be having to deal with the uncomfortable sensation the bird was causing, and had to be ejected.

Laserbeak was dumped with an unceremonial whomp in the dirt. Covered from top to bottom in a lightly acidic silica gel that was the creature's consumption processing fluids for solid materials. It had eaten through Buzzsaw's paint almost completely in the short time it had been inside the beast and the bird was barely recognizable aside from its form.

This was how Trailbreaker and Hound found the cassette bird. It was sitting a little distance from the spot where all the goop was, venting heavily and trying to get its bearings. It was in a heavy state of shock.

Trailbreaker recognised the bird straight away and set off a call back to the Autobot base to report what they found and a message was sent back that someone would be out shortly to investigate.

The big black mech noticed his companion was interested in something else however, "What is it Hound?"

"There's a trail of some kind, of another animal that was here?"

"You can track it right?"

"It's not that I can't track it Trailbreaker, it's just that it's the trail of an animal I've never seen before?' Hound replied quizzically. "It's like the trail of a Dinosaur in some ways, as it's big and has clawed feet, it could almost be a dragon, but they're Earth myths. And only the Dinobots are that big and heavy and these aren't their pedfalls."

"What?"

"I'm going to follow it and see what we come up with."

"Now hang on a nanoclick!" Trailbreaker called, "Things have just been getting stranger and stranger since my sister and her friends turned up." Trailbreaker mumbled to himself and then set off after his friend. While he kept his green companion in sight, he radioed back to base with what they found and where they were going.

It wasn't long before Ratchet and Bumblebee arrived where Trailbreaker and Hound had been.

"Something really did a number on Laserbeak." The yellow Minibot commented, "I suddenly feel real sorry for the poor thing."

Laserbeak, still in a state a shock not knowing where it was, was still kicking and squawking every once in a while.

"I don't." Ratchet said flatly as he went to wrap a cloth around the bird. Apparently the closer the Medic got to it, the better its sensors were working because it understood what Ratchet was and squawked louder than ever. "Settle down you noisy buzzard. I'm not trying to hurt you." He grouched.

"Good thing his weapons system doesn't seem to be working." Bumblebee mused.

"Well at least he's calmed down now that he's gone offline." Ratchet grimaced, "I wouldn't mind betting that Soundwave will be close by, so be on your guard."

Bumblebee nodded and got out his gun just in case. "Is he ok?" He asked.

"Yeah, just peachy." Ratchet ran his scanners over the mecha bird. "Seems his comms. and locator are out too. Something has already eaten through his communication wiring and his locator went offline the same moment he did."

"Hey guys! Sorry I'm late." Called out a familiar voice.

"Took you long enough." Ratchet gruffed, and handed over the bird, "Here, make sure you get him to Wheeljack and Perceptor. Oh and Bumblebee?"

The yellow Minibot was in the middle of collecting some fluid samples for said scientists, "Yeah?"

"Don't let that fluid touch you, it can eat through metal." The Medic warned. He had noticed that when he tried to pick Laserbeak up with the cloth, that it had begun to eat through it and had to get out another one. But it wore off quickly.

All of a sudden, Cliffjumper wasn't all that thrilled about holding the bird anymore, and this made Bumblebee snicker.

The fluid had reminded Ratchet of something from a long time ago, and when he saw the tracks of whatever had spat out the Decepticon bird, and it only confirmed his suspicions more. But even though he thought it impossible, due to the fact the creatures were extinct as far as he knew, there were no legends he had heard of, of them being anywhere but on Cybertron.

"You two finish up and go inside." Ratchet was crouched on the ground looking at the marks. Something in the back of his processor told him he needed to go and join the two on patrol, just in case. He needed to see for himself if what he saw here was for real or not. "I'm going to go help Trailbreaker and Hound."

The two looked at each other and shrugged. Cliffjumper followed procedures and radioed back to base what was happening on their way back when they were done.

"So you'd rather be inside helping Ironhide with the new weapons cache that was just delivered?" Bumblebee mused.

Cliffjumper's faceplate went from a gruff one to a grinning one. "Actually I found something more interestin'."

"Oh?"

"Jazz has organised a party for tonight and rustled up some of those new femmes we found here." Both of them smiled, "Let's go see if we can strike up a conversation with any of them shall we?"

"What do you mean you can't find him?" Shrieked an all too familiar Decepticon Seeker.

"I meant exactly what I said Starscream. I've looked all around an' I can't see the li'l bugger anywhere." Blitzwing groaned. "Why we got sent out to retrieve the parrot I don' know. Couldn't Soundwave have done it himself, I've got better things to do than bird hunting." The triple changer whines as he pulled some long grassy weeds out of his ped joints.

"You and me both." Prostrated the Air Commander with an air of superiority.  
Not far away he picked up the noise of some Earth music.

Then Blitzwing heard it and rubbed his digits together, "Maybe we can have some other fun while we're here then eh?" He asked the Commander.

"Ugh, whatever." Starscream followed behind the triple changer, not really interested in terrorising some hapless human who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He just wanted to get back to base to plot his next strike to wrestle power away from Megatron.

Even though the two human females they were hearing were not too far off, they could hear them clearly with their heightened mechanical audio sensors.  
The two in question were young adults, one Casey Deane and the other Violet Galaniev. Both were fervent admirers of gothic fashion. Where Vi' preferred black and violet harshness, Casey preferred a pink Japanese shoujo style.

Both were friends and classmates. They knew each other through Violet's mother, a part time Science Professor at the college they both attended, who also worked with Casey's older sister Francine. Violet's mother was the well known Physics Scientist, Professor Nikolyena Galaniev.

Violet had not been engrossed in her books, but she did suddenly take notice, not only when the music stopped, but because her friend was frantically trying to get her attention.

While Casey was trying to pry her attention away from her textbooks, a tall figure had shadowed the place where they were sitting. Blitzwing had walked up and simply crushed their stereo. Casey had a look of sheer terror on her face, and wouldn't leave without her friend despite her current fear. All Violet did was put her book away calmly and try not get herself dragged along the ground as Casey grabbed her and tried to run along with her and hide.

When she pried her arm free of Casey's, she let her friend run to go and hide and turned to face the looming menace above and behind her.

"You want something?" Her own grandfather, even though he was more menacing than this mech, she was not impressed her in the slightest.

For a moment the comment caught Blitzwing off guard. "Why aren't you running and hiding like your little pink friend is?" He asked curiously.

"Because I don't have to be afraid of big bullies like you, that's why."

Casey was going to call for help, but had dropped her phone. This mech was busy with her friend and she felt bad that she wasn't brave enough to confront him like she was doing. She spotted her phone near Violet but was too afraid to go and make a grab for it.

Elsewhere Starscream had continued searching for any signals coming from Laserbeak. They had had a clear reading on the bird's location before they landed then it had suddenly disappeared and they'd had to start looking the old fashioned way. Starscream had started looking in another spot out of Blitzwing's optical range when he felt a gun out to the side of his helm.

"Freeze Decepticon." A green mech said adamantly.

"And what makes you think you alone can take me down, a pre-eminent Decepticon warrior like myself, the Pride of Altihex." Starscream said confidently.  
"Because he isn't alone and if you don't freeze then I'm going to pound you into scrap, that's why." Trailbreaker said right behind Hound as the green mech dematerialised the holofield that had hidden his friend until now.

Starscream huffed out his vents, but still refused to comply.

It was when Blitzwing started screaming in agony that caught the two Autobots off guard and Starscream saw his chance. He hit Hound squarely in the jaw plate and knocked the sense out of the green scout. Trailbreaker was a different matter entirely though. He had a force field and advanced on the Seeker.

The big black mech wasn't quick enough to stop Starscream from punching Hound, but he was fast enough to stop him hurting his best friend further.

More screams from Blitzwing unsettled the small group. There was clearly nothing visible attacking him yet he was still being scratched, dented and torn apart by an unseen force. "Starscream, don't just stand there, come and help me fight this…whatever the Pit this thing is."

Blitzwing was barely on his peds now and kept looking all around him rather paranoid about where this thing would attack him next as there was a lull in him being attacked for now.

Starscream ignored Trailbreaker for now and went to help Blitzwing and his unseen enemy. "What in the Pit is going on?" He questioned.

"Can't you hear it?" Blitzwing screeched, "It's all around us." The creature whatever it was, was projecting an attacking growl from all around Blitzwing making it sound like he was surrounded by many of them instead of just one.

Starscream had to admit that he could hear faint growls from certain spots all around him, but he huffed his vents, "Can't you see, it's just an illusion made by Hound. See!" He made a gesture and shot deliberately in the direction of what he though was a fake growl.

Only it wasn't. It was the beast creature that had deposited Laserbeak over in the forest. It was at that moment, the beast chose to dematerialise its cloak making itself visible, instantly upon having the blast ricochet off of its armour plating.

"Frag!" Blitzwing commented, "That don't look like no illusion to me."  
Over by the other side of the lake, Trailbreaker was helping Hound up when Ratchet arrived. "What in the slagging Pit is going on here? I heard all this screaming and…" The Medic trailed off when he saw the beast battling the two Decepticons. "Please tell me that isn't what I think it is?" He pleaded. Hound and Trailbreaker had no idea what he was talking about and so didn't answer.

Then a scream was heard over by another part of the lake's bank, "Somebody please help!"

"That sounds like that female Casey, Rusty's friend!" Ratchet was worried about a human being here in the midst of this chaos and rushed over to help with the other two Autobots not too far from behind. Hound and Trailbreaker cursed themselves for not noticing them sooner as they had been out of sight at first.

"What happened?" Ratchet demanded as he approached the pink haired female.  
"She got shot by a stray blast, it ricocheted off that _things_ armour and hit her?!" Wept the young female, "I'm sorry I…I don't know any first aid but I know that all that blood isn't good"

Ratchet projected his human holoform and proceeded with medical aid. He peeled back the dark haired female's jacket and saw what she meant. But what surprised him, was that although the fluid he scanned was made to look like human blood, it wasn't, that and he saw some mechanical workings deep inside the wound. _'This day is getting weirder and weirder?'_ He mumbled to himself.

In the meantime the creature, along with Trailbreaker and Hound's help, drove off the battered and bruised Decepticons and watched them leave, transforming to their jet modes and taking to the air for an escape.

As soon as it was satisfied with their departure from the scene it calmly came over towards the others, and stopped about ten metres away while still standing in the water, still very menacing and gruesome looking. It just watched them. It snuffed and growled lowly in Ratchet's direction.

"Can you help her Ratchet?" Casey pleaded.

"The Autobot base is the closest, we can help her there first." He knew that wouldn't help completely, but it was enough for the human to hear for now, in order to settle her down. He had in the meantime transformed to his vehicle mode, and had Trailbreaker load the injured female, then he opened the passenger door for Casey. "Get in." He gruffed, "And hold onto something."

Trailbreaker watched Ratchet spped off and turned to Hound, "So what do we do with that thing?"

Hound was sure he recognised it as some sort of dragon creature, but it was a mechanoid and reminded him of stories he had heard when younger of Cybertronian Pit Wraiths that were purported to be extinct, long before their war started.

' _So what was it doing here on Earth?'_ Hound thought to himself.

The creature roared after the departure of Ratchet's vehicle mode as he left and it turned to follow, hesitating to look back at the two Autobots first but then just as suddenly turned and galloped off after Ratchet, leaving Trailbreaker and Hound behind.

Hound noticed that the creature was keeping pace with Ratchets blistering speed and commented, "That thing is definitely fast!"

At the Ark, Vanguard knew that the solar energy projectors were only a temporary measure for her friend Shadow. She needed to get her friend out into the real sunlight for a proper recharge, despite Ratchet trying to keep Shadow in his medical bay.

Prowl had been more than accommodating in the absence of the Autobot leader and several other officers to let Vanguard's friend stay as long as she could till she was on her peds again, but Shadow was getting restless, especially since Jazz had taken over the rec room with his party preparations. Other female friends of them both had also arrived in response to an invitation Vanguard had sent for them to come along if they wished. She felt it may be unlikely now that she would be able to attend even after saying to Jazz she would, as Shadow may yet need her help.

Vanguard had taken her out of the medical bay and was attempting to take her outside for some sun. They did not however get very far. What they got when they arrived outside was a surprise to them both.

Vanguard had to pin herself against the nearest wall with her friend draped over one shoulder plate to prevent being run over by Ratchet zooming his way past in his vehicle mode at full speed with his emergency sirens on.

"That was Casey in the front cab?" Vanguard commented, "She was with Violet today. They went walking on one of the trails close by. Something must have happened?"

Both of them put two and two together and realised that it must be Violet who was injured that Ratchet had found and brought them in. They would have returned to the medical bay if not for another surprise closely following Ratchet.

Vanguard looked back at the commotion behind them. "Oh look, Deathtrap is here too!"

Shadow sighed.

They had to step to the side of the Medical bay entrance as the beast charged right up to the doors amidst the startled looks of the Autobots who had come in response to the proximity alert that the beast had triggered.

In the medical bay, Ratchet gruffed, "Great! Just what I need right now while I'm attending to this." He gently helped First Aid to put the human onto a smaller bench and dispensed with his Autobot self, engaging his holomatter form and projected it next to the injured female and began his work.

When Casey saw what she was not expecting, "I…it can't be? Violet's human? She's not a machine…I mean….!" Then she promptly fainted.

"Great. Just great." Ratchet huffed at Casey's fainted form.

Amidst what was going on outside the Medical bay doors, Ratchet got annoyed. He disengaged his holomatter form and asked First Aid to put Casey onto another small bench and then stabilise the female and finish up while he went outside the doors to deal with the commotion. But upon exiting he came face to face with the roaring beast, with Autobots close by aiming weaponry at it.

If this thing was a Cybertronian Pit Wraith then, if it wanted to, it could have easily ripped them all to shreds given its supposed wild reputation.

It was at the entrance to the Medical bay and wanted to go in but Ratchet wouldn't let it and it was not happy. It would have torn him in half if it had not heard its name called out by a familiar voice. Whereas it immediately calmed down and started purring and let that person pat it. That strange black femme had called out to it.

As surprised as Ratchet was, he asked, "Friend of yours?" She nodded.

"Something like that." Shadow stated.


	9. Chapter 9

*Part 9*  
*

Red Alert was not amused that this beast had now parked itself in the halls outside the Medical bay and had asked more than once for it to be removed from the Ark completely.

Prowl was not happy about having to deal with his insistent ramblings, because he was too busy dealing with the return of Optimus Prime along with Sideswipe, Tracks and Blaster from New York. They were upstairs in the hangar being delivered by Skylynx presently.

Both Prowl and Jazz were there to meet them. Despite this interrupting his party preparations, Jazz had wanted to meet his friend Blaster and was there waiting with Prowl when the group arrived.

"Hey Jazz m'mech, what's hangin'? All set for the party tonight bro'?" Blaster commented giving the black and white their secret handshake.

Blaster had gotten bored at the summit they were attending along with Optimus at the United Nations and had once or twice called Jazz to help relieve his boredom.  
"Been a slight hitch, we got extra unexpected guests." He replied.

"Guests?" Optimus was curious.

Prowl added, "Yes, well there seems to be some sort of creature parked outside the Medical bay and all sorts of other things going on right now that I need to brief you on Sir."

"This I have to see!" Tracks remarked curiously and he was off like a shot, with Sideswipe right behind him.

Blaster and Jazz both turned their attention to the conversation between Optimus and Prowl.

"At the moment, Both Sunstreaker and Ironhide are watching it. The black femme that was brought in early this morning, is with it, apparently keeping it placid."

"But I thought you said the femme had been terminated when you gave me those reports before." Optimus commented.

"Long story. I will explain later."

Blaster turned to his friend, "What's he mean?"

Jazz wrapped his arm around his friend's shoulder plates as they walked off and grinned, then began to explain what had transpired in and around the base in complete detail since Blaster had left.

"You're kiddin' me? Blaster exclaimed, and Jazz shook his head in disagreement.

In the hall outside the Medical bay.

"If you're going to be put on watch duty for my friend here Sunshine, at least watch her and don't stare at my legs." Shadow said flatly.

"The name's Sunstreaker and if I was going to watch something it certainly wouldn't be you femme." He retorted back.

"Yeah whatever Sunshine."

He was just about to mouth off at her again when his brother arrived on the scene with Tracks.

"Hey bro'! I'm back! Did you miss me?" Sideswipe chirped.

"Like a scratch on my paint job!" The tall yellow Lamborghini commented blithely.

"Aww and I even brought you gifts!" The red Lamborghini responded dangling a pair of yellow and black fuzzy dice with I love New York on them.

Sunstreaker sighed in disgust and turned his attention to glaring at the black and grey femme that was sitting on the floor next to the beast.

"So that's it huh?" Tracks said.

Ironhide commented, "Getting' Red's paranoia all riled up havin' it here."

"And the femme ain't that bad lookin' either." Commented Tracks.

"Yeah I'll say!" And Sideswipe eagerly bounded down the hallway to go and meet her, irregardless of the fact that the beast was standing between him and her.

"Hey Sideswipe get back 'ere!" Ironhide yelled. "Stupid idjit!"

Shadow was barely online at this point, her energy being very low, but she managed to get up on her own when called into the Medical bay by Vanguard.

Sideswipe thinking the femme was getting up for him walked right past the beast without even worrying about it, but it was quick. Being that Shadow had her back to Sideswipe, the beast leapt up onto Sideswipe not knowing he was just being friendly to the femme.

Ironhide and Sunstreaker had their guns aimed at the beast in seconds, ready to fire and defend Sideswipe if need be.

Shadow looked at the beast and indicated for it to get down, it growled and moved reluctantly to let Sideswipe go, quietly sitting outside, watching Shadow go into the Medical bay with Sideswipe following tentatively behind.

From down the hall, Ironhide murmured to Sunstreaker, "Sometahmes I really wonder if y'all are really related." Whereas Sunstreaker just agreed.

Sideswipe, after getting control of his shoulder struts back, went right back to trying to introduce himself to the femme after she went inside. Shadow of course kept walking and ignored him. When she realised she was being followed she turned and glared at him, "What?"

He put a hand up to wave and grinned, "Just want to say hi, that's all."

"Get lost." She grunted and turned her attention away from him to what Ratchet was doing.

Sideswipe was watching what was going on and got curious, "What's going on?" He asked.

"Never mind." Huffed the Medic, "Out you go before I make you leave."

He left quickly when Ratchet picked up a wrench and threw it at him, narrowly missing his head.

When he was satisfied that the red twin wouldn't come back in for now, he went and joined the two femmes with the young human. "Now are you two going to explain to me how it is that this human right there has a completely cybernetic system made to resemble a human one, not to mention it's Decepticon physiology?" He growled. When no one answered straight away he continued, "Well?"

Vanguard realised that Shadow was going to make her do the talking and sighed. "That's because she is a Decepticon, at least not by faction and conduct. She and her twin brother were made that way, it's a long story Ratchet. Their creator is one of the female Decepticons we have with us."

"A female Decepticon?" Exclaimed Prowl from outside the room at the doorway. He turned to Optimus, who came in with him, "I didn't know such femmes still existed. Didn't Megatron have them all exterminated?"

Optimus vented his intakes, obviously angry about that particular debacle. He remembered that Elita One had handled most of the femmes they could save by offering them refuge amongst the Autobots. Though many chose to leave the planet or stayed in hiding out of pride. He would never have known any were hiding here on Earth until Vanguard had mentioned it. He though only Autobot femmes were aboard the Genesis.

When he regained his composure he used his scanners and looked at the femme. While she had the form of a human, she was most definitely a Cybertronian under all that human covering. He saw the wound she had received and sighed.

Vanguard then continued to elaborate that both of them had special cloaking systems that allowed them the benefit of not being detectable by any Cybertronians or other technological devices in that form. She explained that Violet's protective cloak must have been damaged from the injury she had received.

Vanguard demonstrated by turning herself into a human sized Pretender.

Optimus got up again and turned to the Medic, "Well Ratchet?"

"She's fine for now, a few days rest and her healing systems will fix the damage like it never even happened in the first place." Ratchet paused and looked at the two femmes, the human sized Vanguard and the other one, "But what I'm more interested in is information."

"As am I." Prowl added.

Optimus turned and looked at the black femme who was leaning against one side of the wall. She had a stone faced look on her and didn't even flicker an optic, she just listened to the goings on without saying one word. And she was so tall. He had to admit, he'd never met a femme who was that tall, as tall as himself or Megatron at least. It was 'interesting' to say the least, not only that but she looked every bit as formidable as her demeanour told him she was, despite her apparent lack of energy right now. Considering he couldn't determine an alt mode, she looked like a good fighter, and it made him wonder what side she was on as she bore no insignia. He however stopped staring when he saw her glaring at him and he looked away. He turned his attention back to the rest of them, where Ratchet was engrossed in a conversation with Prowl and Vanguard, getting more information on the young human.

Vanguard was annoyed that Shadow had left all the talking to her, most of what she had to explain, she didn't know how to really. It was all scientific claptrap which didn't really interest her, but she did her best to explain it what she could.

What got her attention was Wheeljack. He came bursting in blurting out, "Did I miss anything?"

"I was wondering why it was taking so long for you to get here." Ratchet commented, seeing the scorch marks on his armour.

"Had a project I was finishing up, needed to be done, couldn't get here sooner." He was venting rather hard from obviously running to the Medical bay.

"You saw what was out in the hall then…."

Shadow listened to Wheeljack and Ratchet talk then got herself off of the wall and waltzed over to the bench. She picked up the humanoid femme in one arm ensuring her slumber wasn't disturbed and then started walking out of the room.

"Hey where do you think you're going with her? She needs rest and care." Ratchet objected, blocking the doorway, putting his hands on each side of the doorframe to stop her.  
"I'm taking her home to rest and recover. I'm not going to let her be any kind of guinea pig just because anyone is curious about our technology and secrets and I won't answer any more questions about it."

Shadow was very adamant and Optimus noticed this, wondering if the femme actually had some familial connections to the smaller female. "Let her go Ratchet." Optimus hoped he was right.

When Ratchet began to object, Vanguard chimed in with the fact they could take care of her and be out of the Autobots way.

Optimus raised his voice to shout over Ratchet's objections and Shadow's arguing with him. " _Let them go_. We have no right to detain them here and they are not Autobots, nor are they obliged to stay." Ratchet gave Optimus one of the deadliest glares he had ever seen him give, but he stood his ground for once and glared back in defiance.

Shadow grinned at Ratchet and he moved himself out of her way. She whistled out to her friend out in the hall and the beast came to the entrance to the Medical bay and slowly waltzed in like it owned the place.

Vanguard followed Shadow and asked her, "So, are you going to get Deathtrap to take you back home now."

"Yes, since she is here, plus I have to take care of these two." She indicated to Casey, whose limp form she had also picked up from another bed close by. "And I need to recharge properly which isn't going to happen here." She became annoyed by Ratchet. "Knock it off will you." She yelled back when Ratchet began to verbally object to the beast being in his Medical bay, "We're leaving anyhow."

She turned and gave the beast a nod. Deathtrap took that to mean she was ready for transport and then opened a warp field. It did so by reverberating its vocals. The animal found itself a small shadow in the room and expanded the dark spot to the point it was large enough for the femme, her two packages as well as the beast itself to go through.  
Before Shadow went through though, she nodded her head at Vanguard to incline a 'see you around' and then she was gone. Vanguard realised then that she is now free for the evening and could go to the party after all.

"That settles it." Ratchet grimaced, "That beast was definitely a Pit Wraith, only they as far as I know can do that."

"I'm actually curious to know how it is, that you know about such creatures Ratchet?" Asks Prowl, as he had only ever heard of them in legends.

"Yes Ratchet, I'm very curious also." Optimus adds.

Ratchet sighs and explains only what he wants them to know, without revealing too much about his past that he would rather stay buried.

Later at the party.

"The look on his faceplate when the Wraith casually waltzed into the Medical bay was just priceless!" Vanguard commented giddily.

By now the gahtering in the main rec room was in full swing, Vanguard was partly overcharged from excess consumption of energon, and several of her femme friends, who had come along, were around the room doing other things.

"That's enough out of you now." Ratchet growled. He was off to the side at another table with Ironhide and Inferno, who were having a good old laugh at the medic's expense. "You two shut it as well or I will make your next physical very uncomfortable." Despite the fact Ratchet was in a more pleasant mood, they still shut up just in case he wasn't bluffing.

Among other things, Jazz was in one corner with Rusty, asking her as many questions as she would answer about her 'friend' Shadow. And once or twice though during their conversation, she had gotten the better of him with some humour and he had to admit, it made him feel embarrassed which amused her to no end. Rusty used it as a distraction to avoid answering certain questions she knew Shadow wouldn't approve of. But Jazz was persistant and she could tell the shorter black and white was sweet on Shadow.

She took a break and looked around the room. Most everyone was tanked including Vanguard. The normally reliable and dutiful white femme was letting herself loose tonight. Something she knew Vanguard hadn't done in ages, so she probably had something on her mind she wanted to let go of through over consumption of high grade.

Rusty was still sober, unlike Vanguard. She had been offered some energon by several of them and had refused each one. She had no reason to want the fuel, she could have consumed it all but she just didn't desire it. Despite the fact she was a heavy drinker when she was human, her wants and needs were slightly different now being in a mecha body and she felt left out.

Some were passed out in various spots all over the rec room. The music was still blaring as Blaster had willingly provided the music with himself as the stereo, having since gotten too overcharged to transform anymore, so he just sat by a wall in his alt mode beating out the rock music.

Jazz had since left her and gone to join the twins elsewhere. He and the twins were doing the worst impression of Can-Can dancers Rusty had ever seen and she couldn't stop laughing over it.

"Seriously though…" Asks Sideswipe, who had collapsed onto the couch next to a comatose Bluestreak without finishing what he was going to say.

Sunstreaker points at Rusty very shakily and says, "She isn't tanked yet?" And then he decidedly collapses onto the floor and goes offline making the ones still awake around the room erupt into laughter.

Sideswipe staggers uneasily over to his brothers limp form and tries unsuccessfully to pick him up and ends up dragging him over to the couch and propping him up on it.

"Anyways, what I was just about to say was, why don't we have a drinking contest, eh? I can take bets?" Despite the fact he had been consuming copious amounts of high grade energon, Sideswipe was still pretty much sober. He always could handle more energon than his twin could.

"So long as we don't use that drivel you call home brew." Calls out Ratchet from across the room.

"You wound me my dear medic! That's top quality home brew!" He pointed out.

"It's top quality slag if you ask me." Comments Ratchet.

Sideswipe turned to the Medic and replies, "Well nobody asked you anyway!"

That got a glare and a threatening hand motion from the CMO in Sideswipe's direction that made the red Lamborghini suddenly cringe.

Smokescreen commented to Jazz, "Why don't we get out the rest of the good stuff we were saving for later. Ratchet's right; we can't compete with Sideswipe's home made stuff."

"Traitor!" Mumbles Sideswipe to Smokescreen.

He just smiles, "Well if we have the better quality stuff then we can gauge better who will stay in the game longer and who will be ousted out, therefore raising our own betting stakes and quite possibly keeping the profits for ourselves." He whispers to Sideswipe on the sly and Sideswipe agreed.

Smokescreen gave him a thumbs up before turning to everyone else in the room, "So who's in and who's out?"

Jazz and Ratchet had disappeared into an adjoining room to bring in some barrels of high grade for their little contest.

"Might as well have a go seeing as how you guys are complaining about me not drinking!" Rusty says cheerfully. Vanguard saunters over to join in also.

Sideswipe and Smokescreen smiled at each other, thinking, due to the fact Rusty had told them she didn't need energon to refuel and she could consume it by choice that she was probably not able to hold much of the fuel, so an easy target for their bet perhaps.

There were several clamours from around the room from others who wanted in also.  
Sideswipe and Smokescreen took bets from almost everyone except Rusty.

"You gonna put anything in?" Asks Sideswipe next to her.

She just smiles, "So what odds am I getting' from the bookie eh?" She asks of Smokescreen.

He answers, "Well considering you don't apparently consume fuel like we do, low odds to win." He tuned and looked at Vanguard who tipped a glass at him when she noticed him looking, "And she's a seasoned drinker too so…"

"Really?" Rusty laughed, "We'll see if I can keep up with ya then eh?"

Smokescreen grinned, he wasn't about to tell her he thought she was fair game and he expected to get a lot of credits from her losing.

"Anyhow that sounds fair." She smirks, "But the problem is, I don't carry any credits, at least not what you have." As she looked over the chips on the table. While she rummaged around her glove compartment for the wad of cash she usually carried. She continued, "This is part of my paycheck from yesterday."

Someone asked, "You get paid that for one day?" What she had taken out was several thousands of American cash in a wad of folded notes. Sideswipe was greedily eying off the wad and already wondering what prank material he could spend it on with what he could win.

"Yeah." She stated. "What, you guys don't get paid?"

It was mainly money for the stunts she did for Deane Entertainment at the movie studio. And she got paid very well for it.

"Not really no." Comments Brawn.

She smirked. "Well this is just half. The other half is in my glove box."

"You have gotta be kidding me!" Brawn says to himself aghast.

"So is it enough?" She asks Sideswipe and Smokescreen. She was having them on as much as they were trying to manipulate her for their contest.

Both of them look at the amount of cash gleefully, then at each other.  
Sideswipe greedily nods his head, "Yeah fine!" He takes all the credits and counts them into a basket.

Sunstreaker had woken up by then and asked Smokescreen to join in. Though he turns to his brother when he sees all the cash Rusty puts in, "Either one of us had better win, we need some cash right now."

"Don't worry about it bro', we're a cinch to win." He replies confidently, knowing full well that most of their earned cash had been spent recently on his prank projects and Sunstreakers need to beautify himself.

After about another hour, more than half of the ones who had signed up to compete had bailed out and called it a night. Some had returned to their quarters, some stayed, wanting to find out who was going to win.

Sunstreaker had to make a run to the room's waste disposal and eject the contents of his fuel tank into the nearest receptacle when he bailed. He had consumed way too much and his systems were objecting to the over fuelling.

"She'd better not win or I will personally see to it that I am your executioner." He threatened quietly to his brother when he returned. Rusty had watched him and thought it interesting that mecha could throw up as it were. _'Just how many other mannerisms did these Cybertronians have in common with humans?'_ She wondered.

Sunstreaker was commenting on the fact that Rusty was among five mechs still left in the contest. The others were Ratchet, Vanguard, Brawn, and Jazz, along with Sideswipe.  
Within the next ten minutes, Jazz passes out, Brawn wilfully bails and Vanguard collapses on the floor from overcharge. And Sideswipe went the same way his brother did.  
All that were left were Ratchet and Rusty.

Ratchet was being very calm about it; he was an accomplished fuel consumer after all. "I have to commend you on lasting this long!" His speech was ever so slightly slurred as the over consumption was beginning to get to him. He was barely able to finish the last drink, though he hoped he could hold out, he'd bet his last fifty credits on himself to win. "I didn't think you'd be able to hold much since you said you don't need fuel like we need."

"So what's my prize from you if I win?" She asks him playfully. She figured she would get a more amused response out of the CMO since he wasn't his usual grumpy self right now.

"Maybe a full diagnostic…hic…check up by myself in my quarters. Doctor's orders!" He grinned lushly.

While he had stammered over part of the response, Rusty had to commend him for the humour of it. She felt she knew exactly what he was pertaining to. The innuendos with the mechs were fun. _'Its no different than human males!'_ She thought to herself. She just sat there looking at her glass. Ratchet was one up on her at the moment as she had yet to drink hers to keep even with him.

"Having second thoughts?" He asked amusingly, "Want to give in and bail out?"

She smiled and then downed the whole glass in one go. "You're turn." She states to the CMO as she puts her glass down and looks at him.

Ratchet knew he was reaching his limit and was wondering how much longer she could last. His fuel tanks were close to overflowing and his system was beginning to shake slightly and he wanted to retch.

He took another glass from Smokescreen, and managed to get it down along with all the cheers from his comrades. Now all he had to do was keep the drink down. His fuel tanks were now full to bursting and his systems were grumbling from the strain.

Rusty took the glass in her hand and looked at it. She was neither interested in drinking it nor was she wanting to, and she wasn't interested in winning the bet, she had loads more cash she could get if needed. Sure she loved to gamble, but she wanted to make new friends not alienate them. But then she had another idea on her mind and took her glass and upended it upon the floor. "It's all yours."

Ratchet vented a sigh of relief. He wouldn't have been able to consume another glass anyhow and was grateful for Rusty for letting him win. He gracefully got up and left the room silently so he could take care of his overfueled systems.

Smokescreen and Sideswipe were nothing if not aghast. Rusty had let the medic win. Now they tried to sneak off with all the credits, only to have Rusty stop them. "That's for Ratchet." She took the winnings and handed it over to Ratchet when he came back into the room.

Smokescreen left in a rush and Sideswipe had to deal with his brother, currently occupied with a fuming twin. He had just lost the bulk of their remaining credits on this bet thinking it was an easy win and they had both lost.

Rusty had not intended to keep the cash, the game was just fun for her. She didn't really need it, so gave it willingly to someone who could use it.

And then someone approached her, it was Vanguard. "Jazz is going to let us crash in his quarters while he and Blaster go crash elsewhere." She had to stop for a moment, Holding her headcase, "Geez I haven't gotten this tanked in ages, but it was sure fun to cut loose for a bit!"

Rusty laughed, "That's one thing about being human I miss ya know!"

Vanguard grinned and went to organise their group for the night. There were a few femmes here and Jazz and Blaster had given up their quarters for them till morning for the sake of the party.

Some of the others who were still around and were just about to head off to their quarters for the night helped Vanguard and Rusty to get the other femmes to their assigned room.

And as soon as they were settled Rusty took off for somewhere else as quietly as she could, letting the others drift into a fitful recharge.

Ratchet wasn't too happy about being woken from his recharge. He had been cycling off for about an hour now after he had left the rec room and really needed the time to recover, it had been a long day and he had drunk a lot of energon, despite extricated a large amount of it to waste after their drinking game.

He was surprised to find Rusty there at his door.

"Hi!" She asked playfully, "So is that offer still valid?"

Ratchet didn't know what to say, the offer had been something of a joke, not intended for anyone to take seriously. So he just invited her in and offered her a seat.  
Ratchet was a little nervous to say the least, he hadn't actually entertained a femme alone in his quarters since he was bonded to his last mate before the war, one of the many reasons he drunk so hard and usually did so alone in his room late at night, was because part of him still pined for her and their dead sparklings. Very few knew about his family history and even fewer asked questions because of Ratchet's reputation.

But then Rusty may just be here to talk. He was just so surprised at her being here that he wasn't his usual grumpy self.

"Not feeling awkward at all are you?" She asked brazenly. "About being alone in your quarters with a femme?"

"Sorry what?" Ratchet had been distracted.

"Well even though I've only been a femme for about a year or so, I'm not without my resources Ratchet. There are enough people around where we are to keep me entertained…but tonight I thought I'd try something different." She had a lopsided grin that made Ratchet suddenly feel uncomfortable. "You seem older than the others, someone with experience, so…maybe you can teach someone like me a few trick?"

"Seriously?" He asked.

"I wouldn't be here otherwise." She commented with a cocky demeanour. "What, did you think I came here to talk?"

He wasn't exactly young or good looking any more so when he felt he was ready to start seeing other femmes after grieving enough for his lost bondmate, he was already out of the game and so didn't even bother anymore, that and the pickings were extremely slim nowadays, not very many females of their kind left at all anymore. Ratchet couldn't believe his luck. It wasn't often that their troupe got any down time, let alone with femmes, especially here on Earth. Elita One and her group never came to Earth at all.

He had often wondered since meeting Rusty, what went on in a human mind that was in a machine body. But really he had been that way ever since the 'Autobot X' debacle. He couldn't really imagine what it had been like for Spike all those years ago being inside a mecha shell and he was wondering what it was like for Rusty. It would be different for her being a femme and all. Her chassis was not built the Cybertronian way but all the parts were there and so he kept wondering to himself.

He sat down in the chair opposite hers on his table and laughed to himself.

"Something funny?" She asked.

"Nothing really. All these cycles of not bothering with female attention for my own reasons, and then here you are. You show up at my quarters without so much as flickering an optic."

"Well here's the thing," She began to explain, "I get what I want, you get what you want, then I'm gone in the morning. Deal?"

He wasn't exactly partial to the deal, but it was better than nothing. His own insecurities wouldn't let him turn her down because he would probably never get another offer like that.

"Oh and by the way," She added, "This is just between you and me."

That got his wiring in a twist for some reason. He got up and objected. "Now hang on a nano-click. If you think I'm going to subject myself to that well you can…"

He didn't have the chance to object. Rusty had started smiling as soon as he started mouthing off. She just got up and pushed him back onto what she though was his recharge table and then the business of her visit got underway.

The buzzing on her comms had gotten slowly and constantly more annoying. She supposed she must have forgotten to turn it off. But she responded to it before her optics even came back on again. "Yeah."

 _'Morning sleepy head, I've been trying to get through for ages.'_ It was Vanguard. _'When you are ready to leave your alternative accommodations, then you can join me in the entry foyer for departure. Frankie wants you and me over at the studio today for some work.'_

Rusty grunted groggily and then rolled over to get up. Once on her peds she turned around to see that Ratchet was still deep in recharge, and she left without disturbing him.  
It wasn't long before she arrived at where she left Vanguard and the others, hours earlier.

"Everyone has already left as they have their own work to get back to." Vanguard commented as soon as she saw Rusty. "So how was your night?" She grinned.

Vanguard was rather observant about her environment, that and she pointed out to Rusty, the pieces of paint on her that were obviously not her own and Rusty grinned, "Learnt a few tricks from an old dog!"

Vanguard laughed. "Plenty of others who could've taught you better, but hey I'm not going to judge you of all people."

They had made it about halfway to the entrance when someone found them.

It was Jazz. "Recharge well?" He asked.

"I did, Jazz. Your room was more than enough, thanks!" Vanguard commented.

Jazz would have asked Rusty how well she recharged, if not for the fact he was very observant also. "And just who was the lucky mech, may I ask?" He pointed to the scratches of odd paint on her chassis.

Rusty wasn't going to say a word but Vanguard did, "I hope those scratches buff out easily for you!" She teased.

"What?!" Rusty's tune changed, "My paint job is scratched?!" And she began to look for the scratches. She found several spots of the white paint that Vaguard had mentioned before, that she wasn't too pleased about, and she sighed, "Great, no close ups for me today!"

Vanguard was snickering. "That should teach you!"  
Jazz was also laughing, as he recognised the specific paint colour. She didn't need to say it. Even though there were several white mechs in the Ark. Only one had that particular off white. "Well hopefully it'll put th'Doc in a better mood for a few days eh?"

"Maybe." Rusty admitted, remembering she had agreed not to speak of her experience.

"So wha's on th'menu for t'day ladies?" Jazz asked, "I've got th'day off, feel like hangin' 'round with yours truly?" He thumbed towards himself.

"We gotta work." Rusty replied.

"Francine wants us over at the studio in a bit. Do you want to come?" Vanguard asked.

Unfortunately Tracks and Sunstreaker were also close by and heard the offer.  
"Sure, we'll come." Tracks answered.

"Anything to show off my great skills in front of the camera!" Sunstreaker also replied.

"Does that offer include me too?" Asked Sideswipe who had just come up behind them.

"What? All four of you have the day off today?" Vanguard asked.

"Yeah great timing ain't it!" Jazz mused.

Rusty looked at Vanguard, "You know, I don't think Frankie would mind?"  
Vanguard shrugged, "Yeah why not, the more the merrier!"

"Then Me come too." Added one more voice, "Me always wanted to see film studio."

Rusty looked from the big Dinobot to Vanguard, "He's all yours, I'm not having him tear up my chassis or upholstery, whether they can size shift or not, he ain't carryin him."

Vanguard sighed at her friend and then turned to the Dinobot, "Ok Grimlock, you're with me but you will have to shift your size down so you can fit in the back."

The T rex nodded and did as he was asked when Vanguard transformed for him and opened her rear storage compartment, and then everyone left and went on their way.


	10. Chapter 10

*Part 10*  
*

What anyone didn't know was that the night before, two individuals had infiltrated the studio grounds. They were not terribly pleased with such a meagre job but they followed orders nonetheless as given. And as soon as one and two were in place, number three was put into hiding also.

Soundwave had offered an idea to Megatron, that perhaps the femme may show up somewhere, where that detestable human, Francine Deane, often visited in her daily rounds of work, as there seemed to be a connection between the two. This was something Soundwave had surmised after the concert attack. They still had their plans of vengeance for Miss Deane, but right now they were after someone else. A tall black femme that Megatron had set his sights on capturing.

While Soundwave, Thundercracker and some other cassettes were at other locations; Laserbeak, Ravage and Skywarp were here. Megatron had not been too thrilled at sending one of his better warriors into a full force battle right after he had been repaired from severe damage, but he admired Skywarp's loyalty and determination to get back to work and so sent him along with the two cassettes. It allowed him to utilise Thundercracker for the same plan, while Soundwave headed the mission overall.

Laserbeak quietly surveyed Ravage prowling around the grounds from his hiding spot with his scanners. _'Have you found anything yet?'_ He asks.

 _'Stop bothering me you insufferable bird.'_ Comments the mech jaguar, annoyed, _'Can you not see that I am busy.'_

There was no comment from the mech vulture. He adjusted himself on his perch then went back to his lookout duties. He was also watching the goings on around the studio and reporting back to Skywarp, to give the mech an idea of the layout should he need to move from his spot.

Ravage in the meantime had found something useful. He had scoured around several warehouses and found plenty of things that he knew were not normal for a film studio. There were several energy signatures that were Cybertronian, unusual for this area, they were very faint like they were old or deliberately being covered, but he had sensors that were better than most and could find any smell.

Once he was done looking, after evading several fleshlings and their 'useless pets', the robotic guard dogs, he bounded over as quickly as he could to where Laserbeak and Skywarp were hidden and contacted them.

"Well?" Asks Skywarp of Ravage.

Ravage had originally scoped out Skywarp's hiding place. Being that the warehouse they were now in was full of replica aircraft used in filming, and he had found it wasn't used for much other than storage. Skywarp exhibited a modicum of distaste over having to repaint the entirety of his body in black, but he did so for the mission.

"There are definitely Cybertronian scents here." Ravage stated calmly. "But barely detectable."

Laserbeak was also curious as to what he meant but he had his duties on lookout, up above them in the rafters and so listened from his hidden perch.

Ravage nodded in confirmation. "There are also some familiar scents that I cannot place at the moment but…"

"Someone is coming." Laserbeak interrupted.

The two cassettes quickly got out of sight while Skywarp transformed into his alt mode.

Over by the hangar door, a female human walks in with another human, a male, walking right behind her. Both talk amongst themselves for a few minutes and comment on the black plane being in the back. They think nothing of it, afar from being just another prop plane for movie shoots and then leave soon after, locking up behind them.

After he was sure he couldn't hear them anymore, Skywarp transforms back to his root mode and comments, "Did either of you two scan the weird readings coming from the human female? Either my scanners are screwing up or I was getting a Decep' signal?"

"I received them also." The cat claimed.

"As did I?" Laserbeak added.

"Those particular humans warrant further investigation. Perhaps they are Decepticon Pretenders in disguise as humans." Ravage said with a fair amount of disgust.

"Why a Decepticon would want to disguise itself as a filthy little fleshbag, I don't know?" Skywarp snorted in disgust, but then he smirked, an idea forming in his sadistic mind.

Meanwhile at the front gate, some visitors arrive.

One after the other they line up at the front gate amongst the crowds, several of them being recognised. Jazz went out of his way to say hello to as many of his avid fans as he could after he had transformed into his robot mode to greet them. While Tracks and the twins did the same, soaking up the attention.

"Me no see point in all that attention. Some of those humans need kick in butt. Don't like all humans, most too noisy and stupid." He sniffled inside Vanguards rear cab, meanwhile she moves up the security check line to the staff entrance.

"Grimlock would you please sit down and stop fidgeting?" Comments Vanguard, her suspension groaning under Grimlock's weight.

"Me no care, Me want to explore film studio." He pauses for a moment and looks ahead in the line to where other vehicles were being checked for inspection. "Hurry up, me want out."

At this point Grimlock had inadvertently touched her horn by accident and had gotten a mouthful from Vanguard about the noise, making Grimlock cower, "Me think me shut up now!" He shuffles further back and whimpers to himself. Vanguard was trying very hard to stifle a guffaw, this Dinobot leader was so much like a child at times.

The guard finally got to Vanguard and saw her holomatter form sitting in the driver's seat. Eventually waving her on as they knew she was expected, along with her entourage, explaining Grimlock and the other cars away as extras for a new film to get them in.

"Finally!" Sunstreaker whined. While the rest of them transformed, Sunstreaker breezed through ahead of them getting away from the crowd and its dirty fingerprints, as well as noisy chatter.

Francine was here today helping to finish filming for a movie that was on the work roster and was eagerly awaiting the extra help from Vanguard and Rusty. She was none too surprised when she was asked if some Autobots could tag along and so let them come. She'd said she may be able to make use of the extra cars for the stunt work as well.

Francine smiled when she saw them, "We have some things to take care of, so why don't you boys go for a wander around the studio and have a look see while we attend to it." She began to walk off but then turned and cautioned "And stay out of trouble!"

The Autobots found themselves a spot and spread out to discuss what they could do. For a while they all discussed about where to go first, as no one could agree.

"Me want to see fancy stuff in studio." The Dinobot muttered.

"And there's a theme park here too!" Sideswipe added.

"Should we all just pick an area and look around on our own?" Asks Tracks.  
But then they all look at Grimlock and decided against it.

For the better part of two hours they wandered around the studio areas, chatting amongst themselves, looking around as well as being pointed at by some humans who were also present. There was the fact that they constantly had to keep an optic or two on Grimlock so he wouldn't wander off and cause trouble either.

But at some stage.

"Hey, were'd the twins go?" Jazz noticed. They were wondering why it had gone conspicuously quiet. Both had wandered off to a movie set close by that was currently filming.

"Heh!" Exclaims an amused Jazz, and he wanders over to where they are both watching the action, Grimlock and Tracks follow him.

But their attendance was attracting some fans amongst the crowd who were also watching the scene being played out. This crowd was from a tour group that had stopped to watch the filming in progress.

"Wow, Autobots!" Exclaims one human close to them.

Someone asks, "Can I get your autograph?"

"Are you guys gonna be in this movie?" Asks another.

"Yeah I reckon these guys'd be great in a movie!" Shouts another.

But before any of them can respond to them, a director close by filming yells, "Cut!" and then gets off his chair and proceeds to abuse the Autobots, "Who ordered these machines in here? I certainly didn't, get them out of here; they're ruining my creative genius!"

This got sneers of indignation from the twins who looked like they were about to go over the partition line and step on the director.

That's when Vanessa showed up. She talks to the director, "Take it easy Simon! These guys just want to see your creative genius in action."

Once the director saw who it was, someone who was a close friend of his employer, he shut up real quick, lest he got fired and not paid.

Aurora Sabre also showed up in her car, "Hey Vanessa, Simon giving you grief again?" She leaned out of the window of her Reventon and asked.

The director goes back to his work soon after and ignores the rest of them.  
"He's cool, just being prickly like usual that's all." Vanessa mused.

Jazz waved at Aurora, she saw the gesture but ignored him. He was still trying to get Aurora to notice him, "No." She stated firmly.

Whereas his answer was, "But hey I didn' even ask for anythin'?"

She retorted, "I'm just stopping you in your treads before you do."  
Rusty drove past with two passengers and they watch as they both get out at the film in progress some distance away. Once she was empty of any passengers, she drove off elsewhere.

"Hey where's she goin'?" Asked Jazz.

"Let's find out shall we." Vanessa stated. She got into the passenger side of Aurora's Reventon when the door was opened for her and the car drove off to follow Rusty, with the Autobots following not far behind.

They were led to where Francine now was. She was currently talking to a Director and an explosives Manager about effects for a scene they wanted to do. When she saw the group arrive she waived them over to her and left the Director and Manager to their conversation.

When the Director turned around and saw the transformers he had a great idea, "You know Frankie," He commented, "Those Transformers, would make for a great movie with lots of great explosions and effects." He was giddy like a little child.

This amused Francine, "Now Micheal, keep those explosive ideas for the folks down in Hollywood, this is just a low budget action film we are doing here, not a big time action blockbuster, this is one that you agreed to help me with because you owed me a favour."

"Okay okay, I got it. But can I at least use those two Lamborghini's for something?" He asked. "They'd be great in this scene I have an idea for. I really don't think it would work with those two hatchback's your vehicle despatch gave me. Oh and I'll take the blue Corvette too if he's willing, he'll be better than that silver Stingray concept car I've got here."

Frankie looked up at the three grinning 'Bots bursting at the seems waiting for her response, "So long as they behave I guess and _don't_ break anything or themselves. I've had their Medic call me from their place and threatened me with grievous bodily harm if any of them are returned damaged."

"Well hey what 'bout me an' the Dino?" Jazz thumbed to Grimlock who was wagging his tail eagerly.

The Director thought about for a moment, "Don't go anywhere ok, I may have a use for you."

They watched them wander off with the Director who was going over some ideas with the twins and Tracks.

"Oh boys!" Francine called out to them, "Watch out will you, he has a penchant for blowing things up in a spectacular fashion and I'd like to return you 'bots in one piece to Ratchet."

Francine noticed Aurora watching them. "Think of it this way," She commented, "At least he won't bust up any of your precious Lamborghini's for once."

"True." She murmured. She found herself a seat and sat back to watch. This Director was a friend of Francine's who quite often came up to Oregon for the facilities. He was also one the could be trusted with the information of some individuals that Francine dealt with, including Rusty, whom was used by the director for daring car stunts that couldn't be done with the safety of a human driver on the line. Plus Rusty was near indestructible, and that gave him some room to use explosives for very dangerous stunts that he knew Rusty loved to get involved in and was paid extra for.

What annoyed Rusty was that she had to stay in her vehicle mode for the filming as most of the crew were only aware of the known Cybertronians. At the moment though, a trusted aid of Francine's, had a fake radio control unit in their hand and was using it to make it look like Rusty was just a car. It was the way it was always done when Rusty worked on a film.

Aurora in the meantime was looking back at Jazz who was with Grimlock, getting very fidgety because he had been in one place for two long.

Francine had come over to where she was and asked, "I wonder how your T rex friend would do against him in a fight?"

Aurora had another mecha friend who just happened to have a Tyrannosaurus for an alternate mode. Aurora grinned at the thought, not thinking the Dinobot would fare very well at all.

Grimlock however had overheard part of what they said and was curious. "You have other Dinobot like me?"

"Not a Dinobot like you Grimlock." Francine answered.

"You humans have robot dinosaur then?" Was all that seemed to sink in to the Dinobots brain. The information certainly had piqued his interest and wanted to know more. He moved around to get close to the two females and in the process knocked over several things with his tail, getting yelled at by several film technicians, as their equipment had been damaged. "When you human introduce Me to robot dinosaur?" He asked eagerly, swinging his tail like a happy little puppy.

Jazz couldn't help but laugh about the situation.

"Shut it you, you're not helping." Aurora then looked at Francine, "Now look what you started?" She complained, "He's going to be as bad as Jazz now, pestering us continuously."

Francine snickered as she wandered off to help the technicians sort out their equipment.

Jazz had quietly been sitting on the grass aside the trailers watching the goings on with Tracks and the twins being asked to do this or that. Rusty, he could tell was getting annoyed at being in vehicle mode, and Vanessa was grateful that Francine's excuse, that Vanguard was busy elsewhere, was believed by all of the Autobots bar Jazz.  
Vanessa was still very aware that Jazz knew who she and Aurora really were. Prowl was the only other one that knew about her, but not Aurora. She was grateful both had decided to keep quiet till either Aurora or Vanessa were ready to reveal their secret to the others.

Jazz had a familiar buzzing in the back of his processor that told him that something was about to happen. And he was right.

Not long after he got his sensation, Skywarp showed up. He set down right in the middle of the filming and transformed, making all the humans scatter, and the Autobots got their weapons out in defence of the humans.

"So this is how you Auto-dolts have fun. Hanging around with a bunch of fleshbags and letting them stink up the place." He bellowed.

"If anyone is stinkin' up th'place, it's you 'Warp!" Jazz retorted. While he kept the Seekers attention, he issued orders without taking his optics off Skywarp. "Sideswipe, you an' Tracks go an' make sure th'area is clear of any humans. We can take care of this Decepti-bozo!"

Vanessa ran off after Sideswipe and Tracks when they left, to help them out. Rusty transformed the moment most the humans were out of sight and offered to join in with helping the Autobots.

"Grimlock pound Decepti-bozo into scrap metal." The Dinobot leader roared as he charged the grounded Seeker.

"Grimlock wait!" Called Jazz, but it was too late.

Skywarp teleported as soon as the Dinobot had charged. "Aww! Widdle Dinobot too slow!" He cackled from up in the air as Grimlock crashed headlong into equipment.  
Skywarp knew he was already in enough trouble for breaking cover and showing himself when this was an undercover mission to find that femme's location and grab her. But when the Autobots had shown up and proven to be too much of a distraction, and he had contacted Thundercracker and Soundwave about it. Neither of the other two had had any success at their own missions and so had radioed back that they would come to Skywarp's location and assist. If the Autobots were there, then the femme may very well be close by.  
After having reviewed the video Laserbeak had recovered, it was surmised that the femme's form was likely a black Lamborghini. They had already gathered that every time since the emergence of the black and orange femme, that they had interfered with Deane Corp, that something had happened. Francine Deane herself being kidnapped and then the concert, had brought out various and previously unknown femmes. It had led to one loss after another and Megatron's temper was getting worse and worse with every loss and they needed to give him something to ease that furious temper.

The point of the mission was to draw that particular femme out after being at a Deane Corp location. Currently Skywarp's location was the only one that had brought some action, but no sign of that femme, or so they thought.

But Aurora, hiding in her human form, was already on the scene. She had noticed that the Seeker had already taken an interest in her black Reventon, whose appearance she did on occasion replicate for an alt mode, even though it wasn't her true form, like the one she wore now.

Her car was capable of moving itself around without a driver, but it wasn't like Rusty, it was something else, that had been told by Aurora to stay out of trouble. All it could do was to get itself out of the way when it looked like a fight was imminent. Unfortunately that action had attracted the wrong attention.

She figured that they being here had something to do with her. Either her true identity had been discovered or that one of Soundwave's cassettes had infiltrated the Autobot base after the concert battle and seen her resurrection. She figured the latter was more likely and settled for staying in her human form for as long as she was able to.

Jazz, Sunstreaker and Grimlock were keeping the Seeker comparatively busy for now, but the odds tipped to evens when Soundwave and Thundercracker showed up. Then they tipped in the Decepticons favour when Soundwave ejected all his available cassettes. It was auspicious that Tracks and Sideswipe then returned shortly after.

Ravage and Laserbeak joined them soon after, with both informing Soundwave of their recent discovery.

Ravage indicated the female in question whom they had discovered earlier. Soundwave was very curious about the information that had been given to him and so had made a decision to take the human female back to the Decepticon base and have her studied. As he too could perceive the signal coming from her, but not only that, he was now detecting a signal coming from a human male that was under some rubble very close to her.

"Ravage. Rumble. Frenzy. Retrieve those two humans." He ordered, pointing at the two in question. The twins didn't understand why at first, but obliged their Master willingly and went to carry out their orders.

Elsewhere, Aurora had found her niece and nephew who were elsewhere amongst the film crew when the trouble started. Victor, in the process of protecting his sister, had been knocked out cold from a stray blast and buried under some pieces of concrete when the blast hit the ground and covered him in debris. Violet in her already weakened state was trying to remove a heavy slab of concrete that had come down on her brother, when Aurora had rocked up to their location. She herself was sporting more cuts and scrapes.  
"Thank God you're here, help me, I can't move the slab, it's too heavy for me." Violet pleaded.

Aurora didn't even have a chance to do anything as she was set upon by Ravage who was trying to keep her away from the other two while his companions took them into their custody. She couldn't clear the debris and keep Ravage occupied at the same time.  
While the two Seekers had been keeping the Autobots busy, Soundwave had gone to check out this car Skywarp had mentioned to him, but had found more than he bargained for. Like the beast that had accosted Blitzwing and Starscream previously, this car was very similar, only it had this car as an alternate mode. Soundwave came running out from the backlot with this beast on his peds.

It didn't help matters any when Starscream showed up to survey the situation. He had been sent by Megatron to be backup, only for him to find the ensuing battle.

He had been watching quietly from atop a nearby warehouse some distance away when several shots had been fired at him, and that was his cue to then get involved.

The beast had given up chase on Soundwave when it saw Aurora trying to get to Victor but was currently being warded off by Ravage. The beast came up so silently behind Ravage, that the Jaguar had barely enough time to get away when he was surprised by its sudden appearance.

"Thanks Reaver." Aurora said as she patted the mechanical animal. The beast gave a light purr of its intakes and proceeded to offer her a spot to sit on top of it to go and help her niece and nephew.

Unfortunately the cassette twins already had these two in their possession and were being held by Soundwave, one in each hand.

"What in the Pit do you need those two fleshlings for?" Screeched the Wing Commander when he noticed what Soundwave had.

Skywarp managed to get out, "Use your scanners and you'll see why." Before he had to teleport to get away from shots being fired by Jazz and Tracks and avoid being fire balled by Grimlock. "We may not have the black femme, but these two will be an interesting enough prize."

The Dinobot turned his attention to Soundwave when he saw the Decepticon standing there.

"Stop or I will hurt the humans." He stated as the Dinobot advanced.  
"Grimlock no care about humans, Grimlock only care about whooping Decepticon butt." He roared at Soundwave.

Jazz yelled at Grimlock to stop. He knew Soundwave would hurt the humans to get the Autobots to stop fighting, and he wasn't going to risk the lives of two young adults. This fight just wasn't worth it.

Aurora wasn't too pleased with the situation either. Reaver was also keeping his distance so that Violet and Victor wouldn't be hurt any further than they already were. They were unfortunately as fragile as humans could be, despite what they really were.

Starscream, after doing what Skywarp had suggested, discovered what the rest had. He also had his scientific curiosity piqued and wanted to find out more about these two strange humans, but he preferred them to be in one piece when they were examined, and decided to use them for more than what Soundwave was doing. "You heard him Autobots, cease fire or these two measly fleshlings are going to bite the dust, as they say in their language!" He prostrated.

Grimlock wasn't going to abide by anything and instead started walking towards Soundwave, who in turn put pressure upon the two humans by squeezing them, making the female squeal in pain.

Jazz yelled, "Cease fire." He'd had to make that choice. He was hoping that they would win over these Decepticons and perhaps drive them off and rescue the now captive humans, but that wasn't going to be today.

Somewhere else, Starscream could see his wing mate being beaten up by the Autobot twins.

"Perhaps you two didn't hear your superior's orders." He queried.

Jazz saw what he was referring to, being that after he had issued a cease fire, the twins had continued to beat Thundercracker, but stopped reluctantly when Jazz once again ordered them to.

Skywarp teleported over to his friend and helped him up, "You ok to fly TC?" He asked.

The blue Seeker coughed and spluttered fuel from his intakes but got out an affirmative answer. He had gotten worse beatings than what the twins could dish out before.

Starscream issued the orders the transform and fly out, grabbing one of the humans and shoving it into his cockpit as he transformed and gave the other to Skywarp.

What got the Autobots attention was that they took the two humans with them. Ordinarily they would just dump their bargaining chips then leave. Jazz ordered Tracks to follow them with Grimlock tagging along, they could find out where they were heading.  
Jazz looked over and saw a very irate and frustrated Aurora Sabre. He had been surveying energy signatures coming from both the young humans and guessed there was something unique about them. "Somethin' ya wanna tell us 'bout those two?" He asked Aurora.

She got down from the beasts back but didn't answer Jazz's question. "I was supposed to keep them safe and out of trouble, but now the Decepticons have found out what they are and have taken them." She blurted out without realising what she'd said.

"What's so special about those two?" Sideswipe asked, leaning against a wall trying to survey his battle damage not having heard what Jazz had said.

Jazz mentioned it again and then they turned to Aurora and started asking questions to which she just ignored them all, lost in her own thoughts.

Vanessa, who had just turned up, sighed after realising she would be the bearer of information yet again, "While those two have the appearance of two young humans, they are actually both Cybertronian underneath, more specifically of Decepticon design."

"That certainly explains the weird signal I was getting from both of them?" Sunstreaker added. "Isn't that female the one that was at our base yesterday?" He added.

Vanessa nodded then looked to her friend Aurora who was murmuring to herself, "I wish I'd had the energy to fix her completely at the Ark yesterday, otherwise she wouldn't have been so vulnerable to get hurt again today. They never would have been able to discover either of them if they were still under the cloaks protection?" Aurora berated herself. "I shouldn't have even brought them to the studio today."

"Wait a click?" Sunstreaker piped up, and Aurora realised in her haste she had spoken aloud. "Since when were you at the Ark?"

Vanessa and Aurora looked at each other, and Aurora slapped her head realising what she had done. Vanessa maused that it was now her friends turn to make a mistake.

Then it dawned upon Sunstreaker, "Wait? You're one of those femmes, a Pretender or something are you?"

Both ignored him.

While Jazz knelt down and tried to help, "Easy, we'll get 'em back. We'll do all we can t'help ya, ok."

Sunstreaker further questioned the situation, "You knew about this already didn't you Jazz?" But before anyone had a chance to say anything further, someone else had arrived, ever so quietly while they were all distracted by conversation.

"What is this I hear about Violet and Victor." Came a deep female voice with a thick Russian accent. She was tall as Aurora but with a more calculating and ruthlessly intelligent look about her.

Jazz had to look twice for a moment there as the female human kind of reminded him of a Russian spy at first.

"Well?" She asked, crossing her arms. "Is someone going to tell me what has happened to my children?" It didn't take them long to put two and two together from the humans statement about the two kidnapped youths.

Hidden behind one of the closest buildings was Ravage. By his Master's orders, he had remained behind to seek out more information about the femme should she show after they had left, but what he found was evidently more interesting.

When he thought he couldn't get any more information, he crept away and followed the signal belonging to his Master.

The Decepticon base, hours later.

Violet had been stuck in a holding cell along with her brother. He was resting along one wall. He was conscious now but very sore from his injuries. His internal healing system had healed most of the minor damage as did hers. He was luckier than his sister in so far that he had a stronger body shell at the time while she did not, a reason why he had pushed her aside when the walls began to collapse around them at the film studio.

When they had been taken, she realised straight away that the sensor cloak they had on them must have stopped working and had given their identities away, otherwise they never would have been taken to begin with, they believed. But both felt they wouldn't be at the mercy of the Decepticons for long, someone would be trying to organise their rescue, hopefully before both were dissected or worse, by their new captors.

Not too far away they could hear the voices of some of the Decepticons. By reputation and also through listening to their mother's stories they knew a few Decepticons by name. The only ones they knew by face were ones that were lucky enough to have been seen by news crews or had been told about.

"You had better have a good reason for bringing this human filth into the base Starscream. Not that I doubt Soundwave's reasons, but you will explain why to me, right now." They could hear one yelling at another.

They could barely make them out in the next room, but they could see that the one called Starscream was being berated by another taller mech, who looked much stronger than the red, blue and silver flyer, and much deadlier too. A conversation was going on but they didn't hear all of it.

"But they are not as they appear to be!" The flyer screeched. When the tall grey one dropped Starscream, he said, "Go and see for yourself if you don't believe me!" As he rubbed his nearly crushed neck cables.

The grey one stated as he left that room to come into this one, "You were supposed to make sure that the black femme was retrieved and brought back here, not bring me this rubbish…" He stopped when he noticed something peculiar. "Well what do we have here?" He knelt down to get a closer look at the two humans and grinned at them both maliciously. "I take that back, perhaps you have brought me something interesting after all."

This only made the flyer grin, "Didn't I tell you?" He exclaimed.

Violet and Victor could feel those blood red optics glaring at them and they both didn't like it.

Megatron examined them with his scanners. They were indeed giving off a Decepticon core signal and also smelled like two of their own, and he wondered how they had come to be, especially for all intents and purposes they were both human in size and form and appeared to have no transformational capabilities.

All these two could do was sit and wait and hope that no harm would come to them, but with both of them being prisoners on the Decepticon base, it was unlikely. They didn't know where they were and couldn't risk exposing their other abilities. So they both hoped they would be rescued some time soon.


	11. Chapter 11

*Part 11*  
*

 _'Where do I start?'_

' _While I had had to reveal my Cybertronian self to the rest of the Autobots for the mission to retrieve the twins, it had been a miserable failure. Aurora was called away and it had annoyed her more than anything to not be involved in the twins rescue. I had gone along with the Autobots after Teletraan One had correlated their signals.'_

' _At the present moment, I was incapacitated in the Ark's medical bay, drifting in and out of stasis. I was being worked on by Ratchet. Or at least he was trying to.'_

' _He had not yet come across my incredibly complex internal mechanisms before. And while I retained some of my basic parts, I had been heavily customised over the years and it was hard going for him, and also Perceptor, who had decided to help out.'_

' _It didn't help matters that Rusty decided to help by bringing my usual Doctor to the base.'_

' _I always imagined what the first meeting between our group's Medic, Heartbeat, and the Autobot CMO would be like. Both were very used to getting their own way. It would have definitely been something to watch, but at the time I wasn't online.'_

Ratchet had not been paying attention to what had been going outside his medical bay as he had been heavily engrossed in working away at Vanguard.

It was not until a red and white femme he had never seen before walked in and unceremoniously dumped their Head of Security on another table close by that he realised something was going on. She was shortly followed by Rusty who stood in the doorway watching the goings on.

"What the frag…?" Ratchet looked up from his work on the white femme.  
The other femme didn't say a word as she reached over to the back of Red Alert's neck and pressed something, bringing him back online again.

The first thing he saw was her looming over him and he warily tried to inch away. He was beginning to not like all these unknown femmes popping in and out of the Autobot base lately, it was all creating so much stress on his processors, all these new people and situations.

"Next time you shut up and let me pass or I will dismantle you where you stand, understood?" She said firmly.

Not wanting to have a repeat of the situation at the entrance to the Ark, where she and the big orange femme, Rusty, had had a talk with him, he quietly agreed and sat up then quickly left the room, edging past Rusty at the door on the way out.

"What's ya rush Red'!" She snickered as he sidled past her quickly.

"Are you going to answer my question or not femme?" Demanded the curt Medic.

She looked at him and answered a simple "No."

"Then what the frag are you doing in _my_ Medical bay and what do you think you're doing to my patient?" He demanded again as he tried stopping her from rifling through his tools.

" _You're_ patient?" She queried.

"Yes, _my_ medical bay, hence _my_ patient." He said flatly.

The young looking red and white femme took a container from her subspace and moved over towards Ratchet. She huffed, "Well then if she is your patient then you better stop trying to terminate her and yourselves by reconnecting those fibres. Vanguard is a walking lightning conductor, and connecting those two lines would short out everything on the base with a massive electrical blast." She said matter of factly.

Ratchet rounded on her, "Just who in the Pit _do you think you_ are coming in here and telling me how to do my job, I've been saving lives long before you were even brought online youngin' so don't patronise me…"

She cut him off mid tirade and yelled back, "That is _my_ patient and is therefore _my_ responsibility and I'll be damned if I'm going to let a _backward_ imbecile who knows not a thing about her highly advanced systems go traipsing around in there and ruining all the work I did to get those said systems operational and keep them that way. So you will shut up and let me do _my_ job. And if you don't like then you can take a rotating drill and shove it up your waste port because I'm not taking any scrap from you!" She turned from the stunned Ratchet to Vanguard and began taking tools out of her subspace medical kit and started working on the femme.

Ratchet couldn't believe it. Here, in his Medical bay, a complete stranger had just walked off in of the street for all he knew, had come in here and gave him a verbal what for.

Wheeljack was laughing his vocals off on the other side of the room; many others who were still being repaired and heard were also joining in, but quickly shut up when they saw Ratchet's faceplate and his well known death stare.

"Shut it 'Jack." Even though the Scientist didn't quiet down straight away, it wasn't like it mattered, as Ratchet had taken his attention off of him and centred it on the femme invader.

Wheeljack also had become interested, as they could see that she was using tools they had never seen before. In her hand she has what looked like a glowing knife. It was emitting a pinkish energon like glow and wherever it shone on Vanguard, lines were reconnecting, spilt fuel was disappearing, burnt out parts and torn metal were repairing itself at an accelerated rate.

When the femme put the tool down, there was not one scratch on Vanguard's chest casing. When the white femme began to come online again, the femme Medic leaned in and looked down at her.

"Oh hey Heartbeat, how goes it?"

 _'I laughed lightly, knowing I was in for a lecture.'_

Heartbeat put her hands on her hip casing had asked sternly, "Well what's your excuse for forgetting to use your shields to protect yourself this time, hmm?"

 _'I had no answer for that one.'_

' _I guess in the midst of battle I hadn't gotten a chance to put them up, but I'm not going to tell her that. Because as far as she and just about everyone else is concerned, I'm usually very cautious and careful with everything. This time I wasn't. No one is perfect.'_

' _Other than Shadow when she was in one of her dark moods and looked like she would kill everything in sight, Heartbeat was downright scary when you didn't do what she wanted. She was just like Airbourne, another human who had willingly been made into one of us. She was young compared to the rest of us yet we often felt compelled to comply with her wishes because she knew just how to throw her weight around and stand up for herself, which is probably why Shadow recruited her in the first place.'_

' _During the battle in question, I had sustained massive structural damage, just mauled up to my internal superstructure frame as I had been the closest to the blast, but that wasn't what was bothering me.'_

' _Something had happened on that secret Decepticon base to trigger a reaction in one of the twins. When we had arrived there was this enormous temporal rift that was being controlled by Victor, it was also getting out of control. I don't know what had transpired to lead to that particular event and I was keen to find out, but it would have to wait. Two others had disappeared along with Victor when the rift had suddenly shut down, the Aerialbot Skydive and also the Decepticon Dead End.'_

' _While no one was complaining that the Decepticons had lost the use of Menasor until further notice, it also left the Autobots without Superion, and Optimus Prime wasn't happy about that.'_

' _I explained all this to Heartbeat. She wasn't too happy with the reason for my damage. I had been caught in the blast that wreaked havoc both inside me and out when it hit me and taken me down but not out, thank Primus. I should have had my shields up but it had all happened way too fast for me.'_

Heartbeat reached over to me and clocked me upside the helm like she always did and remarked snidely, "You dolt."

"Just who in the bloody Pit is this young upstart?" Ratchet demanded.

 _'I smirked. Looks like Heartbeat had met and had dealings with Ratchet already, pity I missed it.'_

"Ratchet," I said, "Meet our CMO."

 _'Technically she wasn't our CMO but she was the head of a Medical facility we visited that served both military and civilian services. And she ruled it with an iron fist.'_

' _Heartbeat charmingly smiled and bowed as she was introduced to everyone, except Ratchet, when she got around to him she pursed her lip components, placed one hand on her hip casing and with the other, she flipped the bird at him. And Ratchet…I've never seen him so speechless, ever!'_

Later, in the Ark's main rec room.

"I couldn't help myself, I burst out laughing. No matter how badly my intakes were hurting right then and there, it was just the funniest thing I'd ever seen, and Ratchet's expression was just so…" I exclaimed, continuing to laugh.

Jazz laughed, "Man o' man, I wish I'd been there t'see it!"

 _'Cliffjumper and Brawn who had been there, being repaired by Hoist and First Aid elsewhere but within optical range, had seen it, and they were sitting with myself and_  
 _Jazz as I was retelling my part of the story.'_

' _Having worked with Ratchet as an Autobot soldier from the time of Sentinel Prime's leadership till my subsequent disappearance, it was funny as the Pit to see someone do that to him, especially a femme, even more so Heartbeat who was younger than most of us.'_

Wheeljack came and sat with them with a piqued look of amusement on his faceplate that showed in his optics. He commented, "Last I heard, Heartbeat and Ratchet were having a discussion in the Medical bay to further their new working relationship!"

"I wonder if either one has killed the other yet!" I mused.

This made them all laugh.

 _'I had to admit that I missed hanging out with some of my old friends, it almost made me want to give up the promise I had made to the Captain oh so long ago. But a promise is a promise and I intend to keep it.'_

' _Being around them again helped me fall into my role as the psychologist I had once been way back when. I couldn't help it, it was in my programming, to analyse anything and everything in my environment no matter how impossible or improbable it seemed. This was the main quality that served me so well as a Detective when in my humanised form. And unfortunately, this job had suffered of late as I had been around the Autobots more, re-establishing old ties.'_

' _I was here at the Ark just as often as Rusty was. While I knew what she was doing here all the time, I wasn't going to pull her up on it, she wasn't hurting anyone but herself by doing it, but according to her morals, she wouldn't be affected by her actions anyhow. If I was a human Police officer, I'd have her arrested for soliciting. Primus only knew what Prowl would do if he found out, but who would he chide, her? Or me for not informing him? The Captain even, I don't think she would care?'_

' _Speaking of which, Prowl just entered the room. I watched him as he wandered over to the Energon dispenser. He filled his flask, deftly managing to do so with only one hand, as the other was full of unread mission reports and a datapad he was currently reading.'_

' _I continued to watch him as he wandered over to another table and put down both the cube and the tablets he was carrying, glancing over towards me briefly before going back to reading his datapad.'_

' _I excused myself from the mechs and went over to join Prowl at the other table.'_

"You know it's great they finally have their relationship back in order again." Brawn Commented. 'Shame the rest of us are all still so alone!"

' _Brawn remembered Prowl and I being together a long time ago.'_

"Why Brawn, I di'n' realise y'were such an ol' romantic!" Jazz mused.

"No I'm not, and if you say to anyone I am, I'm gonna rearrange ya faceplate." He huffed then got up and left the table. Cliffjumper just looked at the other two and shrugged, then followed Brawn over to another table.

"He is right though." Wheeljack stated.

"Prowl is one lucky mech." Jazz lamented.

"Isn't he just." Wheeljack joined him in his sorrow.

"Makes me more miserable thinking 'bout bein' single." Jazz put his drink down and crossed his arms, leaning his head on the top of them across the table. "At least Prowl is a bit mellower than usual." When he realised that Wheeljack wasn't joining him in his lamentation any more he turned his head to look at the Scientist. "Maybe we can try our luck with all th'new femmes that're showin' up eh?" Jazz thought out loud.

"Yeah maybe." Stated Wheeljack, having one femme in mind.

Elsewhere. Another dimension.

"How long has he been raving on?" Someone asked.

"He has been at it several hours and has been roaring uncontrollably, demanding we set him loose to find them." Someone else answered. This voice belonged to Galaxy, also known to humans in her human form of Nikolyena Galaniev. "He knew something had happened to them as soon as the attack at the film studio had occurred, prompting security to have him chained up. It took them an hour to do so I have been told."

There were only a small handful in existence who could keep Reignfire in check, not many who could lord themselves over the former Decepticon General who was not intimidated by anyone. And even then Reignfire only listened to certain people when he chose to. It was just fortunate right now he had been subdued.

Reignfire was livid at the moment, having been previously discovered what had happened to young Victor and Violet.

Upon him starting to show signs of aggression, he had been chained up in special chains made only for him by security where he was being kept when not under someone's company or direction. They were made due to the fact his alternate mode while in his Cybertronian form was that of a dragon, a big heavily armoured and highly weaponised dragon. The chains were designed to keep his power in check and he had yet to find a way to break the incredibly dense material they were made from once they had been put on him.

"What is the current status of your children?" The first voice directed at Galaxy. This voice belonged to the Captain of the femme's group.

"Victor is missing in action and the Decepticons still have possession of Violet." Galaxy wasn't the type to show much emotion. She hadn't yet shown any emotion in regards to her offspring, which was another reason Reignfire was being riled up, by her lack of wanting to retrieve them. "Shadow informed me that she would take care of Violet's situation and would leave Victor to the rest of the group."

Galaxy just wasn't the motherly type either, this much showed in her cold expression and explanation of the situation. Reignfire and Shadow spent more time with the two young ones and were closer to them emotionally then their own parents were.

However Galaxy knew how dangerous it was for the knowledge of what they really were to be available to the Earth bound Decepticons. The Captain knew and understood this too.

The reports the Captain had received were that the male twin Victor, had disappeared in mysterious circumstances, into a temporal rift that had been created by him but had gotten out of control. It had resulted in him being sucked into another time zone, where and when it was unknown. As well as the fact two others had been taken in with him, one each from either faction. No one knew where or when they were.

The female twin was another matter entirely; she was apparently still with the Decepticons and under the threat of being experimented on. Galaxy knew her old brethren too well, knew that they would not hesitate to use the female in their plans somehow; the appearance of the youngsters was just too good an opportunity for Megatron to pass up.

 _'That was the other thing I hadn't talked about yet. Violet was missing.'_

' _She had been seen in the possession of the Decepticons after the disappearance of her brother and because of how bad the battle had gone as well as the light show Victor had put on, we'd had to withdraw and let Violet go, unfortunately she had left with them, though not willingly.'_

' _I knew somehow that Reignfire would have known without being told and wouldn't be taking it lightly. No doubt they had him incapacitated.'_

' _I just hope that Shadow would return soon from where it is she keeps having to go to. But despite the innate luck she has, we can't always rely on her to get us out of trouble all the time. Our Captain would have something in mind.'_

' _I just hope that where ever Violet is, she's somewhat safe despite what I know those Decepticons could be doing to her right now.'_

Decepticon Base, Atlantic Ocean.

Megatron bellowed, "I want that female mechanoid under our control and make sure you don't repeat the same mistakes. You said you had taken all the proper precautions with the other one and look what happened, you very nearly blew us all to the Pit." He was lounging in his chair on the control deck while communicating with Starscream from his labs.

 _'Be patient o' mighty Megatron, this kind of genius takes time.'_

"Why do I not believe you?" He retorted sarcastically. He could hear a huff on the other end as Starscream became offended with Megatron's lack of faith in his abilities."Fail again Starscream and you will pay for it." Megatron reprimanded, and cut the transmission short.

Starscream huffed.

Megatron was already beyond livid at the loss of Dead End, not for the soldier himself but because without him, there was no Menasor. Dead End was one of Menasor's legs. It was one less Combiner to battle against the Autobots.

His temper was already short due to the lack of victories he and his soldiers were having of late due to the arrival and help those femmes were giving the Autobots.

The upside was that the Autobot's had also lost Skydive, a component of Superion. Not that he cared. Those Aerialbots were a paltry comparison to the grandiosity of the Seekers and their superiority in the air as far as Starscream thought.

Since he had brought back these cyber-humans and presented them to Megatron, his fearless leader had forgotten about that other femme for the time being and allowed him to carry out this plan to experiment on them. Starscream had his own plans in play.

Originally he thought it would prove fruitful to make them both drones if he was able to get control of their cerebral systems. He'd have to go over all aspects of their programming, investigate how they worked and why they possibly existed to begin with.  
And for all he could tell, they were no different than Pretenders, only that they were just robots with a humanoid looking nanoskin over the metallic skeletal structure and had no discernable alternate modes hidden within them or the capacity to transform. They were both just ordinary robots dressed as humans emitting Decepticon signatures.

The first control experiment had proved useless. It appeared that the male had hidden codes embedded in his programming he had not originally seen in their systems upon initial investigation. He had activated some strange program in the male by mistake and it ended up nearly destroying them and the Autobots in the process. He had been surprised by the activation of the power source within the male humanoid and had not expected it at all.

The Autobots had found and infiltrated their temporary base in lower Oregon in order to seek out and rescue the two humans, but it came to naught. They took heavy casualties in the power blast. In the chaos, Starscream had grabbed the female, before the Autobots could, thinking she would be just as powerful if they could just get the calibrations right for her control collar and make use of her.

Megatron already saw the female's value as an excellent opportunity for a new weapon against the Autobots and wanted to know if she had the same capabilities of power that the male did also.

But Starscream wanted to use the female for himself, as a weapon to use against Megatron to take over the Decepticons, _again_. Once Megatron was out of the way, he would use the female, if she was still functional, against the Autobots. All he needed to do was gain control of the power she had, if she had any at all.

But coming up with a way to control her and be able to take control of all that inherent raw power was going to be difficult, and he didn't want the same thing to happen as before.

For the better part of the last day, he and two of the Constructicons rifled through all the programming in her cerebral circuitry to see what they could find and make use of.

"Hey Hook would you look at this?" Scrapper commented looking over the code lines.

"What?" Hook replied. He had thought this project a waste of time and resources over two small humans, what use were they to them? It had been Scrapper that had convinced him of getting involved and so he put up with this meagre project.

The Medic sidled over to the Engineer who was looking at programming from the female's core cerebral unit. Hook had to smile, never before had he seen such ingenious programming, so simply perfect yet so eloquent in its complexity. Now he was definitely interested.

"I've never seen programming this complex?" Scrapper was aghast, "It's obvious that whoever wrote this is a genius, a super genius even. I bet you're interested in this work now aren't you!" He mused. "I can't even understand half of it? Can you?"

Hook was momentarily taken in by the code strings and didn't notice Starscream come up behind him. "Well?" Starscream asked.

Hook turned to look at the Air Commander and commented, "I believe there is enough in here that would allow us to control her, but we will need something integrated into her neural network for it to work. Her system is too elegantly sophisticated for any external device alone to be used; we need something more complex, a direct interface with which we can feed orders right into her cerebral processors, something that combines internal and external control methods."

Starscream added, "And?"

"Those plans for that control collar you drew up a while back? Do you still have them?" Hook asked.

"Yes, why?"

"I believe with some modifications, we will have exactly what we need."

All Starscream could do was grin.

"If I'm right about these code lines," He pointed to a group of codes on the screen, "All we really need is to have the collar on her for us to control what she does. There is one code line I believe that will activate the same program that went into hyperdrive with the male but with the collar, we can make that process a slow one and reap all the benefits we can out of her till she becomes useless to us."

"Did you find anything else while you were sifting through her programming codes?" Starscream asked.

"Yes." Scrapper replied. "The female has all the internal system codes that we do. Essentially she is a Decepticon, weapons capabilities, anti gravity systems and all the rest but they are turned off and she cannot transform out of that hideous fleshling body. There is a whole collection of codes and programs I have not yet deciphered, but at first glance I do not think they will interfere with the collars operation."

Starscream thought about what he had said, even he could not pass up the opportunity that had dropped into his lap now and he doubted Megatron would either.  
"Fine." Starscream said. "I will get started on modifying the device. You two begin preparing her for the surgical attachment of the control collar to the base of her spinal array and I will join you shortly."

Later.

Violet had woken up with an awful ache in her head and neck, a pounding feeling that just wouldn't go away.

She got up slowly and looked around at her new surroundings. She had been moved from that other place, but she couldn't remember all that had happened. She knew her brother was not with her and had gone somewhere else with his abilities at the other place, and now she was alone. And she was also wondering what they were going to do with her and what had happened to her brother.

With her brother, they shared somewhat of a bond between them, and she knew he was still alive somewhere but didn't know where exactly; the link was very faint, like he was far away. _'But at least he's alive'_ , She sighed to herself.

And considering she had this headache and backache, she figured they had already done something to her. Her grandfather had taught her never to trust Decepticons but also to not fear them, and above all to be wary of them. The first thing she was told was to check herself over in case of blacking out or any pain in her head casing if she managed to end up in their company. She sank back down on the bunk that was in the room she was locked in and went over herself.

When she was younger, learning she was an android hadn't been the easiest thing in the world to understand or even live with but she got used to it and she also learnt to hide it from everyone. She learned she was generally superior in every way to other humans, but she wasn't invulnerable or indestructible. If it hadn't been for her Aunt teaching her and her brother to try and be humble, then she guessed she could have turned out like her mother. The Cold frigid and emotionless ex-Decepticon scientist.

She missed her grandfather though, he actually showed her cared, as did her Aunt and brother. She was now wishing her grandfather had been there that day she was taken, then none of this would ever have happened and she would be at home, safe with her family.

She had found some padding on the upper part of her spine that indicated she had been cut open and operated upon. Then she found some wires protruding from the top of her spine. Those wires were connected to a collar that was around her entire neck.

She was somewhat of a scientist herself and was already analysing the situation. Although her passion was Physics, she knew enough about her basic biomechanics to know she had a control device of some kind surgically attached to her. She even had to marvel at the precision and skill of the one who had performed the surgery. A slight peek with her fingers under the padding revealed stitching that was neat and orderly, and she knew it would heal without a scar, that is if her healing system hadn't been messed with. That also began to make her wonder about what other internal systems they may have messed with.

She wished she had her journal with her to document all this. Despite the fact she didn't want to be here, she saw it as a perfect opportunity from a scientific point of view to study the Decepticons in their own environment. This was one thing she had inherited from her mother, her scientific curiosity as well as her vast intelligence. Her skill in martial arts however was all her own, and often improved upon it with her grandfather's help.

She got up again to look around the room, it was not well lit, but not all that dark either. There was nothing in here but a ventilation shaft that was too high for her to reach. There was also a door, probably locked and there was a window shining some light into the room. She couldn't get up and see where she was through that because the whole room was Transformer sized.

She turned around and looked at the bed. It had been taken from somewhere as it was not in very good condition. She scoffed at it, but she wasn't going to complain, having something to rest on was better than the cold floor. At least it was her size, and then she noticed something under the sheets, barely noticeable.

It hadn't been there a moment ago. A book with a pen had mysteriously appeared while her back was turned. It had only been for the barest of moments, but then considering there was very little shadow in the room, she supposed that's all that was needed.

She opened the book and read _'Watching you. Stay put for now.'_ This was all she needed to see right now. She climbed up onto the bed and curled up under the sheets. As she laid her head down on the pillows, she smiled to herself. She wasn't alone after all and she took comfort in that.

She now had a rare opportunity to conduct some observational experiments. She had always been curious about the social lives of Decepticons, even if she was now a prisoner at their mercy. The question that still remained to her was how long she was going to be here and when she was going to get to go home.

"What?! Are ya outta ya fraggin' mahnd or whut?"

 _'That was Ironhide. I was with him and some others in their war room discussing a rescue operation when Shadow had showed up and pretty much ordered myself and the rest of our troupe back home, no doubt on our Captain's say so.'_

' _What had gotten Ironhide off colour as well as some others in the room was the fact she stated that she had no intention of retrieving Violet from the clutches of the Decepticons and our group wasn't going to have any part of it unless she wanted it to happen.'_

' _I must admit I was a might angry. No prisoner was safe in the hands of the Decepticons, not for any amount of time or reason.'_

 _Of course this wouldn't stop the Autobots from doing what they thought was the right thing and at least try and save someone from their enemies, whether it was one of their own or not.'_

' _Ironhide wasn't the first to speak up as several others also had a piece of her about her decision as well. Not that she cared what they thought. She wasn't going to respond to them anyway.'_

'I sighed. I then followed her out the door, leaving the others to their discussion.  
I wish I could have stayed and heard how the rest of their conversation went, but it just wasn't to be right now.'

"Ah don' care if she ain't gonna git off 'er aft an' do nothin' or not, no kid, human or oth'rwahse deserves t'be a prisoner o'tha 'Cons." Ironhide proudly remarked, "Ah vote we go n'rescue the kid anyway."

While the others were clamouring in agreeance, Optimus was lost in his own thoughts. Ever since this dark femme, Shadow, had turned up, things were getting even stranger. Then there were the impressions he was getting from her, ones that he could not quite make out. He'd had impressions like this in the past due to his connection to the Matrix, but these new ones were somehow different in a way and he couldn't make sense of them. He figured things would work out in time just like they always did.

"Prahme?" Ironhide queried.

"Huh?" He responded.

"There a problem Boss?" Jazz asked out of concern.

"Ah no Jazz. I was just thinking."

"So wha'do y'think Optimus?" Ironhide interrupted.

"Of what old friend?"

"Of whether we should allow this young femme to remain in the care of the Decepticons or whether we should emancipate her from their possession." Prowl added.  
Optimus thought for a moment. "While I don't agree with Shadows choice of actions Prowl, I would like to find out why she chose that course and what she's up to in that regard."

"Agreed." Prowl responded.

Optimus added, "We will mount a rescue operation ourselves and retrieve the young female from our enemy and stop them from using her in any nefarious experiments or imprisonment. Even if the femmes will not rescue her, she deserves the right to be free of the Decepticons. It makes it that much harder for us as Violet isn't one of our own but she doesn't deserve to be a captive of them."

Deane Manor.

"I cannot believe you are just going to let her remain in _their_ possession!"

 _'I was livid.'_

' _Aurora was standing facing out of the window looking over the estate of the manor and wouldn't even look at me or respond to my questions.'_

' _We had been close friends for over sixty years now, but lately I was becoming more and more agitated by her way of doing things, so I let her know exactly how I felt about this situation.'_

' _When I realised that she wasn't going to say or do anything, I turned and looked at Nikolyena. That femme just didn't seem to care, and it was her kids that had been taken. She was one cold customer; she barely ever showed any emotion. No wonder she used to be high up in the Decep' hierarchy when there were just as many femmes as there were mechs on the Decepticon side. I heard she used to be Shockwave's right hand Scientist before all those femmes were ordered to be terminated. I kind of felt sorry for her in a way; she was one of the very few who had survived. She was better off not.'_

' _Having children hadn't changed her much. You'd think that some hard case cold spark would go mellow when they had sparklings, but her? She was still the same, since the day we crashed landed here. And not once did she ever question Shadow or our Captain, not for any reason whatsoever.'_

' _I gave up. I grabbed my jacket and began to leave.'_

 _'Right now I needed to go for a drive to clear my head and think about whether to stay or join the Autobots, or even do something else I may end up regretting.'_

' _After I got out of the house and made my way down to the driveway, I let out a cry of frustration and switched to my Cybertronian self and just drove.'_

' _I was always the good soldier in the past, but I did have my fair share of disobeying direct orders whenever I felt like the right thing wasn't being done, as well as the fact I took matters into my own hands to do it too, just like I felt I needed to do that right now.'_


	12. Chapter 12

*Part 12*  
*

Prowl had eagerly gotten stuck into some administration work as soon as he had arrived back to the base.

He along with a few others had mounted a rescue mission to retrieve this missing human android from the Decepticons, only it had gone rather bad due to some unforseen circumstances of which he was not able to account for. Though he had a hunch of who it was that had interfered considering the evidence.

Although Prowl didn't currently show it, he was seething. The intervention of this femme in their fight had cost the Autobots several bad injuries. He had escaped relatively unscathed, but others had not. But he had seen that the Decepticons had suffered an equal amount of injuries in their retreat from the fight.

He had been with a few others on their trip to southern Oregon to infiltrate a base they had discovered housing some Decepticons after a fluke sweep with Teletraan One had found their signals emanating from there.

Prowl had managed to avoid Ratchet so far, but even he couldn't do that forever, considering Ratchet would want him to have a check up after the battle anyway. He just felt at the moment that it wasn't necessary, as he was swiftly going over every aspect of the battle in his report, analysing the details.

But Ratchet wasn't one to be ignored, and eventually the Medic came to him instead. He waltzed straight into Prowl's office with the intent to drag him from the administration work and into the Medical bay. It wasn't long before Prowl received an audio full from the Medic.

With Prowl being stubborn and Ratchet being over protective, it wasn't long before an argument started between the Second in Command and the Chief Medical Officer, and the matter of the check up was forgotten completely.

Optimus could hear an argument out in the hallway and was surprised when he entered, that Prowl was verbally standing his ground with the Medic. He wasn't too surprised that Ratchet was yelling, he did that often, sometimes even at him, Ratchet just plain scared him sometimes. But Prowl wasn't usually the yelling type. There were rare occasions were Prowl would lose his temper and yell, but those moments were actually, extremely rare. He had only witnessed less than half a dozen such incidents in the whole time he had known him, and the last time was a fair while ago.

"What seems to be the problem?" He enquired as soon as he entered.

"Problem!?" Screeched Ratchet, "I'll tell you what the problem is. It's the same thing it always is, he wanders off after a battle getting stuck into work when he knows he is required to have a check up, even if he hasn't been injured. Then he ends up overworking himself, and it leads to me having to fix the slagger when someone drags his exhausted aft into _my_ Medical bay!"

Prowl crossed his arms and huffed, "I hardly see how a little work right after a battle where I was not injured is going to send me into stasis lock or some other debilitating state. Besides this work needs to be done."

"Oh so Mr. High and Mighty thinks he's going to get away from me again does he? Well think again!" Then Ratchet made a grab for one of Prowl's doors in order to drag him off for his check up.

Before either could move another flexor cable however, Optimus interjected quietly, aiming his question at Prowl, "Perhaps you should go and get this check up Prowl. It would settle matters and you could get straight back into your work afterwards."  
"But I have my battle report to finish…?" He pleaded.

"If not for yourself then do it for the rest of us, please." When Prime gave him that look, Prowl knew Optimus was trying to avoid Ratchet's wrath and was openly giving in to the Medic for fear of being maimed by one of his own later. Prowl mind you had similar fears about Ratchet and more often than not avoided him whenever he could, especially medicals, preferring to come in to the Medical bay only when First Aid or someone other than Ratchet was on duty, just like many others did.

When Prowl didn't answer, Optimus ended up making it an order, knowing how stubborn his Lieutenant was and assured him that he and the rest of the officers would take care of things while he was at the CMO's mercy.

"Fine." He huffed as walked out of his office with Ratchet close on his peds.  
Elsewhere.

Vanguard had been with them on the rescue mission but had left before having to come into the Ark and be subjected to Ratchet's ire. She was currently waiting somewhere to meet up with Prowl and he came when he was done with his work at the Autobot base.

He had agreed to meet her at a quiet little park that overlooked Portland on a Tourist lookout, being a weekday during work hours, there was usually no one in sight.

Prowl had to admit, that since Vanguard had shown up, things were very unusual. Her being alive and functional had somehow stirred his spark up and brought out emotions in him he was trying his best to keep under control.

He was not himself, he knew it, and some others on the base knew it. It was not yet affecting his job performance, but he had surmised that it soon would if he could not fix what was going on within his systems.

He was struggling to define exactly what was that was happening, all the while he should have known it really was just her presence that was doing it; she just had that kind of effect on him. He needed to get back to how he used to be in order to be the effective soldier that he was. Right now it was emotion versus logic and he was caught in the middle of that battle within himself.

He, Jazz and Vanguard had all become fast friends while training at the Protihex Academy. And at the time, he had really thought Vanguard would end up with Jazz, before the Saboteur had ended up bonding with someone else. He had admitted to himself he did have the same old feelings for her, but he pushed them aside, allowing his logic computer to take presidence.

It had surprised him back in those early days on Cybertron, that she had come to him and confessed how she felt. He hadn't opened up to her much at all then due to his studies, but admitted he had enjoyed the small amounts of times they had been together. After that there hadn't been much time as both had accepted recruitment into the Autobots ranks when the war started. Then Prowl rose in the ranks to an officer and had to take over for a time when Sentinel was terminated by Megatron and Optimus had to be inducted into his new position as the new leader of the Autobots. And Vanguard herself was stationed under the new femmes leader Elita One.

They spent barely any time together after that, and then she disappeared altogether, everyone presuming her terminated along with the rest of the Genesis' crew. And Prowl just filed away all those old feelings. Now he was fighting all that coming back up in him that were threatening to shut down his CPU if he didn't deal with it. It had started the day Vanguard returned and he had been fighting himself ever since.

"Is there room for one more?" She asked playfully out of nowhere.  
He had thought she was running late, but was not even aware she had arrived before him. He was not the least bit surprised when his startled systems reacted by getting his gun out of subspace and turned to lock on the source of the vocals right behind him. "Oh it's you!" He lowered his gun arm and subspaced his weapon.

"I always did have a knack for sneaking up on others, especially you!" She responded. "You never could predict where I would turn up or what I would do next!"

Prowl grinned, "Yes you did and it was…is…still very annoying when you do that."  
Vanguard laughed heartily. "Well you would have known I was already here if you'd just opened up our spark connection on your end and felt for me!" The flat look she received amused her to no end, "Ah, well, you mind if I sit with you?" Vanguard knew Prowl was struggling badly with all the emotions clawing at his processor, it was very unsettling for him to have her around and have their connection open. She knew in time he would get used to it and settle down and open up again.

"No." He didn't look at her while he spoke or while she sat down, instead he gazed at the vista.

Without warning, she reached her arm out and put it around him to his other side and she pulled him close to her to enjoy the view along with him. Prowl found it a little unsettling to be so close to a femme out in public, but he eventually relaxed.

Even though Vanguard was a psi, Prowl was one mech who confounded her the most, which was why she had always been attracted to him. He was very hard to read. And often she would turn her psionic skills off while around him, just for the challenge of trying to read him the old fashioned way. But she had picked the wrong time to do as she hadn't picked up their unwanted guests on her scanners, nor had Prowl it seemed.

"How disgusting!" Starscream commented.

Prowl was annoyed with himself for letting his guard drop and for letting the Decepticons get so close without warning. He figured Vanguard's electro-disruptive ability must have blocked his scanners.

Vanguard knew she was at a disadvantage being at the receiving end of Starscream's null rays that were pointed into her back, but she sassed him anyway, "Just because you can't get any!"

This irritated the Decepticon even more, especially when Skywarp, who was with him, burst out laughing. "Shut up Skywarp." He yelled.

While the purple and black Seeker was quietening down, Vanguard started talking. "Well Starscream? What do we owe the exasperating pleasure today, hmm?"

"What makes you think it's any of your business femme." Skywarp replied threateningly.

All Vanguard did was smile as she saw this as an opportunity to activate her psionics again and just read their processors for the info.

"What took you so long?" Scowled Starscream. Thundercracker had arrived late to join his trine.

"I had to get the last scan that Megatron wanted." Thundercracker said dryly, obviously annoyed by Starscream. He looked over and saw what Skywarp and Starscream had in their possession, "What are we going to do with them."

"Hopefully have some fun!" Skywarp replied gleefully.

"That white femme looks familiar, is she a new recruit of theirs or something?" Thundercracker queried, not seeing any Autobot symbol on her.

When Vanguard got up, they clicked their guns as if ready to fire. But when they did nothing, this encouraged Prowl to get up too. "So what are you going to do with us now eh?" Vanguard teased.

Starscream looked at the other two Seekers, "Well we may as well enjoy ourselves since we aren't expected back to base just yet."

Vanguard quickly whispered, "Prowl let me handle them."

"Vanguard!? You're no match for those three alone?" Prowl cautioned, "I'm helping you whether you like it or not."

"Vanguard?" Queried Thundercracker. He looked at Starscream and said, "Isn't that the name of Trailbreaker's older sibling, it kind of looks like her, but she looks different, younger even. I thought she was terminated along with that ship, the Genesis?"

"I don't care who she is Thundercracker, she keeps the wrong company and is in the wrong place at the wrong time, now go have some fun with the femme you two, while I handle Prowl."

As soon as the Decepticons pointed their guns to prime themselves for an attack, the game was on. It was Prowl versus Starscream on one side of the park and Vanguard versus the other two close by.

Skywarp was getting continually frustrated by Vanguard as she seemed to have an ability to predict where he was going to teleport to. Thundercracker just found her rather hard to fight as she parried his every move with a superior hand to hand combat ability and style he did not recognise.

In the times Prowl was able to look over to see how Vanguard was doing, he saw she was able to handle herself against the two Seekers, while he was having his hands full with just Starscream. But worrying about his female companion was a mistake on his part, as Starscream got the jump on him and was able to hit home with his null rays and knock Prowl offline. That left Vanguard on her own alone against these three notorious warriors of the Decepticon army.

"Damn!" She murmured to herself when she noticed Prowl's offline state.  
She was in a way grateful for the fact that Starscream had started to advance on her after downing Prowl instead of doing something to his offline chassis. Having to deal with all three Seekers was going to be tricky, but she was confident she could pull it off with her combat training experience. After all she was able to handle both Skywarp and Thundercracker, how hard could it be to have Starscream in the mix too.

He didn't know all the new tricks she had picked up over the last 50 years or so being on Earth, and as far as he knew she had been terminated on their ship, having admitted to himself silently in his CPU that Thundercracker was right about Vanguard. But he didn't care, three to one odds against an ex-Autobot were even as far as he was concerned and this femme was going to get it, just for his own amusement.

Overhead, Vanguard had not detected the noise of the engines swooping down on them at first. But then again, this spy plane had a cloak unit and didn't appear until it was almost on top of everyone. The low flying jet swooped over the three Seekers and made them scatter in all directions for cover. Once the jet transformed it turned to face the group who were stunned to silence when they saw who it was.

Another individual who was supposed to be terminated.

Vanguard wasn't able to determine at first why that femme was here. Even with her psionics on, she was almost as hard to read as Prowl and the cold hard ex-Decepticon Scientist must have had a reason for being here. It wasn't normal for her to jump into the middle of a fight, she was a Scientist and preferred to not get involved in fights.

Skywarp couldn't believe his optics, "It can't be? But…but you…your dead?"

The black and indigo coloured femme with the red optics turned silently to look at him, then to Starscream who uttered a few words. "He's right, you're dead. I saw you killed by Autobots myself." He screeched trying to cover up an outright lie, being that he knew it was him that killed her himself, or so he thought.

Skywarp looked over at Vanguard and grinned, "You're in trouble now femme!" He crunched his knuckle joints, "Four to one odds are going to get you beaten into slag now that my big sister is here."

Vanguard just raised one brow, she noticed that Skywarp had already gotten over the shock of his dead siblings reappearance, but had not realised where her loyalties lay considering the femme had no insignia, "What makes you think she's with you?" She said as she got up and dusted herself off. Skywarp was confused till he looked over to see what was going on with the other femme and Starscream.

The femme was glaring at the Air Commander rather intensely.

The femme raised her shoulder guns and aimed them at Starscream, firing repeatedly and rapidly, causing the ground at Starscream's feet to erupt in a cloud of dust. The Seeker couldn't get a shot in with his clouded vision and ventilation system making him choke.

But Skywarp and Thundercracker could still see her and had their guns raised to shoot at her. "Gravion, what are you doing? You're on our side…aren't you?" Skywarp asked of her, confused. She ignored him and focused her complete attention on Starscream.

When the cloud of dust had settled and Starscream had stopped choking from the dust in his intakes, he started screaming at her, "Just what in the Pit do you think you are doing? Do you have any idea how long it'll take to get that foul taste out of my vents?" He raised his own guns and aimed them at her, ready to vent his annoyance at having his paint job scuffed by all the dirt.

The femme spoke with cold venom, "I am no longer known by the name Gravion, nor am I a Decepticon. I am known as Galaxy now." Then the femme suddenly took off, transforming into the sky.

"Well don't just stand there like idiots you two, after her!" Yelled Starscream as he transformed and gave chase. The other two following shortly, completely forgetting about Vanguard and Prowl.

Left behind, Vanguard vented a sigh of relief. She checked her GPS before she picked Prowl up and surmised that it was only a short distance to the nearest secret entrance to the underground base where she and the other femmes lived and could get medical assistance quicker than having to take Prowl all the way back to the Ark. As she was injured and couldn't transform, nor could she transport Prowl, she radioed Heartbeat for a transport truck and waited patiently.

She figured it was about time one of the Autobots finally saw where they lived, and quite frankly she didn't care what anyone was going to think about it.

Violet had spent the better part of the last week at the mercy of Soundwave, who it seems she was presented to for care now.

Megatron had figured that Starscream would try and use her in some way as a tool against him and so left her with his most trusted warrior as he had his own plans for the young female.

It was the same deal with the Constructicons. While they had orders not to touch the femme, it still wouldn't stop them trying to steal her away when Megatron wasn't looking. And since Hook had taken a personal interest in her designs and wanted to spend more time getting to know how she really worked, it was better that she was kept away from them altogether.

She was not allowed to roam the Decepticon base on her own unless under orders, and she was under orders to stay in Soundwave's lab when not needed. She had no choice; it was due to the device wired into her. If she was so ordered to by them, she would most likely end up having to terminate herself. But she figured they wanted her for something, since she was locked up and was still alive.

Violet had noticed that the only ones who could order her around were Megatron and his Comms. Officer. Apparently Megatron had Soundwave reconfigure the device so only either himself or Soundwave could issue her orders.

Those first few days, she had been cooped up in Soundwave's main lab answering question after question about herself. She was able to divert his attention away from all the more personal ones concerning her family, and in that regard she was grateful she didn't know anything about her Aunt's private operations and all the weird and secret stuff that went on at the Deane mansion on a daily basis.

She was also tested for various foodstuffs and fuels for consumption. To them they thought her a Cybertronian, and wanted to determine if she was actually one and could survive like one.

As much as Violet was being studied and all her reactions were being recorded, they didn't know that she was doing the same with all the Decepticons she observed and interacted with. She wrote in her secret diary every chance she got to be alone, which wasn't very often.

Soundwave's two minions, Frenzy and Rumble, who up until now had been under orders to go out and fetch human food and clothing for their prisoner every once in a while, were getting rather tired of doing so. They took to harassing her as a result of the extra work they had to do on her behalf, and took it up even more when the food raids were stopped and also when they found her alone in the lab just because they figured they could.

When she was alone, she tinkered with the many boxes of junk Soundwave kept around his lab for study. She often found herself locked up and left alone for long periods of time and entertained herself with said boxes of junk. She had come to the conclusion that Soundwave had been left in charge of studying Earth technology to see if it could be of any use against the species they loathed or the Autobots as there were copious amounts of this device or that item lying in the boxes taken apart and tossed aside when it was found of no use.

She was more than happy to find a used Ipod in one of the boxes and got to work on it straight away, grateful that she now had some music, even if it was tunes she didn't like all that much. One thing she had learnt from Francine Deane was to be resourceful with technological junk, no matter how old or useless it may seem, there was always some use for it, and so set out find some items she could use to build some speakers with.

When she finally did find enough parts to build one speaker device and got it working only to have Megatron step on it to shut it up. She had not heard either him nor Soundwave enter the room as the music was too loud.

"Hey I was listening to that!" She exclaimed.

"Quiet." Megatron boomed, which resulted in her having to shut up on command.  
Soundwave wrapped his digits around her midsection and placed her on one of his benches. She assumed he was going to ask more questions, as he usually did this before getting started.

"Inquiry: The sonic device was constructed from the human technology left in this room? What was the purpose of doing so?" Soundwave asked.

All she could do was shrug as she was still under the command to be quiet. She looked from Soundwave to Megatron.

"Speak Android." Megatron ordered.

"Yeah I made it, I was bored and it was too quiet in here. Besides why do you want to know?" Violet replied.

"We are the ones asking the questions here Android, so do not speak unless asked to." Megatron huffed.

Violet went silent. She just sat there while Soundwave typed something into his datapad journal that was being written about her and conferred with Megatron over other items in the journal. What she wouldn't give to get hold of it and know what was being written about her.

She was also annoyed at the fact Megatron had come waltzing in and destroyed her newly built speaker. She had no way of listening to the music now, as there were no earplugs for the Ipod. She had glanced once or twice quickly to the floor and noticed the Ipod was still in one piece at least.

Soundwave put a small Energon chip on the bench before she was yelled at by Megatron again. She didn't like the chips she was being fed with, but she picked it up and took it anyway. She didn't often get energon but when she was hungry enough she consumed it. Human food or not she could consume energon too.

"Get out of this room." Megatron boomed at her. The comment was so sudden that it startled her and she looked up at both of them. She then ran for the small room at the back of the lab that she was given to stay in. As soon as she was off the table and on the floor, she also picked up the Ipod on the way past, hoping she would be able to do something about it later.

She didn't close the door all the way though and so listened in on their conversation. She had no choice but to listen to their orders, she hadn't found a way around them yet. Plus the wires in her back were a little hard to reach or get to and there was no way of telling exactly what else they were attached to. If she tried to rip any one of them out she may do herself irreparable damage.

"Since it has become obvious she can consume energon, then at least I will not have to deal with your minions whining every time I would have needed to send them out to get human fuel for her." Megatron commented.

"Subject however has shown a capacity to consume just as much or more Energon than what both designates, Frenzy and Rumble consume together." Soundwave replied. "Subject has also displayed an apparent increase in growth whenever her Energon consumption is higher, presenting a form of increased weight and height as a result of energon consumption. Skin density is also increasing."

"Are you sure?" Megatron asked curiously. Perhaps the fact they had to feed her from their own Energon wouldn't be a waste at all. But at least they were saving resources by having her able to consume it rather than having to send others out to get things for their experiment.

"Positive. But it warrants more study and observation. Subject is developing much as a protoform of the same size would normally do so." This information piqued Megatron's interest.

She hadn't been fed all that well since she was captured, but Soundwave had left out some chips one time to test a theory and she was starving enough to take a few and hope no one noticed any missing. But he had, on purpose and had made note of it and also how she reacted to it.

She had consumed real Energon once or twice before being taken captive but wasn't really accustomed to the taste. But once Soundwave had discovered she could consume it, he began to give her more and focus on documenting her changes and pushing them along.

She looked into the shiny surface of some metal square she had found to use as a mirror to the side of the door. She was looking rather dishevelled and positively awful, her skin was turning silver and in parts was hardening into plating. She knew that when she was old enough this would start happening but Soundwave was making it happen forcibly by feeding her energon, which she believed why this change had started.

"Has she shown any signs of the same or similar abilities her sibling displayed?" Megatron asked. Violet listened to them very quietly.

"Negative." Soundwave replied, "Subject appears to possess no apparent abilities of distinction to report at this time."

Violet smiled to herself. She was glad they hadn't detected or discovered her space manipulation abilities. But she did wonder why she couldn't use them right now. When she was a child she had developed abilities, just like her brother had, while his were temporal in nature, hers were spatial. She could store items in subspace, create pocket dimensions to hide herself in and warp into and out of them at will. She could even warp space to teleport much like that purple Seeker did. But all she had with this wiring in her neck and head was a light subspace storage ability that she was grateful for as she could store her diary in it as well as her newly acquired Ipod.

Violet was wondering about something else too. In the past she had displayed a high level of telepathic communication abilities, using subspace telecommunications with just her mind and no other communications devices. This skill must have been blocked by the wiring also. She was sure that once she could do something about the wiring, she would get her abilities back.

"Subject has also displayed an apparent skill with technological items until now, perhaps she can be used in minor maintenance repairs for small areas around the base."

Megatron looked curious about some of the information Soundwave was reporting to him "Considering she hasn't shown any apparent abilities as yet, it would be prudent to make use of her somehow so she isn't a bane on our limited resources. Assign the female to some repair duties and keep her under constant observation, report any new developments or changes in her status to me straight away."

"Acknowledged."

Later in Megatron's office.

He was processing all of the new information that Soundwave had given him about the human Android.

As soon as Soundwave had mentioned the increase in her size and weight as well as the changes to her structure, he recognised the system processes of a sparkling that was consuming Energon for growth, and it made him think.

To Megatron, the choices were to rid himself of the female, but he was too curious about her construction and origin to just throw her away so blithely. On the other hand, she hadn't been of much use or displayed the vaunted power he thought she would have, like the other one did. And he was getting tired of waiting for something to show up. He would have to make use of her the way that Soundwave had suggested, it would have to until he could find out why she doesn't have the same power as her brother, and if she did, why it wasn't showing itself.

What exactly was it that the female was growing into, he wondered. Sure she had completely Cybertronian internal mechanisms, but her current form and function was that of a human. And he wondered if her transition would be into that of an adult Cybertronian, and if so, perhaps he could use this to his advantage in the mean time.

He smiled to himself and pressed a button on his comms console "Hook. My office. Now."

The Seekers had had no such luck trying to catch the femme jet.

Starscream had to admit that she did have some flying skills. Several times he had gotten close to her and she had taken off again, outmanoeuvring him and leaving he and his trine for dust. He wasn't going to let that lie; he was the best flyer in the sky and wasn't going to be outdone by some measly femme, made to look second best.

Thundercracker had come to a conclusion. He had realised this femme didn't want to be caught and was obviously leading them somewhere, possibly to a trap. He had voiced his concerns to Starscream but of course he was scoffed at and his thoughts were dismissed, Starscream's ego at being outdone by this femme were taking over.

Skywarp didn't really care. He was just curious about his sibling's sudden reappearance and so stuck with them occasionally teleporting to catch up here or there.  
It wasn't until the femme took a sudden launch into the upper atmosphere that they took notice. They all came to a sudden stop and transformed, watching the femme stream up and out of the Earth's atmosphere at incredible speeds that even they weren't capable of.

"So…do we follow?" Skywarp asked.

All Starscream did was grimace and grind his dental plates. He wasn't going to let this one sit, being out flown by a presumed dead femme, not by a long shot.

The fact that they had their attention diverted by her exit, they didn't notice something else. The femme was indeed luring them somewhere and that somewhere was here. Coming up on them fast was a large bulky form they couldn't detect with their scanners. They didn't know anything was up until for some reason, Skywarp teleported out of the way to a safe distance, and then they saw it.

Guns at the ready, they started shooting at the creature. Skywarp was the first to offload a few rounds due to the fact the thing had tried to snap him in its gaping maw. Then the other two followed suit. But the superior manoeuvrability of the creature allowed it to escape the majority of the trained warrior's blasts.

But the dragon-like creature was just a distraction. Galaxy had come back to them but under her cloak. As soon as she was within reach of Starscream she jabbed him with a fast acting chemical to his neck's fuel lines and he was out like a light. She then took him and disappeared behind her cloak and flew off.

By the time anyone realised he was gone, it was too late.

"Where's Starscream?" Asked Thundercracker of his wingmate.

"Who cares TC, besides I'm too busy with this badass mo'fo!" Skywarp replied.  
But then suddenly, even the winged beast disappeared and the two Seekers were left alone.  
"Well it's not like anyone is going to complain about him being missing, are they?" Skywarp asked.

"Megatron may not like Starscream very much but he is the Air Commander and also a Decepticon warrior and will take his disappearance out on us if we don't come back with him." Thundercracker vented flatly.

"Oh…uh…I didn't think of that!" Skywarp said.

"That's the problem," Thundercracker sneered, "You never do think."

So the two set out to scan the area for the whereabouts of their missing comrade and Commander.

"Hound how much longer are we going to sit out here at the lake and stare into the greenery hoping this animal shows itself again just so you can study it." Mirage murmured, so close to boredom, he was about to fall into recharge. "We've been out here since the crack of dawn helping you look!"

"Look Mirage, I can't blame you for being bored, but you did say you were going to come out here with me and help me look." Hound replied.

He had several scanner devices with him and was working his own inbuilt scanners into overdrive just to try and find that Wraith creature that might happen to be in the vicinity.

"Dude, he's right, while I'm all for scoping out this animal m'man, I'm gettin' tired too. We've been out here all day and I'm majorly bummed. There ain't nothin' here?" Beachcomber added.

Hound gave in. "Fine if you two want to head in, it's okay. I can stay out here and continue my search and I will come in soon myself, I promise."

Mirage chimed, "Good enough for me!" That is all Mirage needed to disappear.

Beachcomber however felt bad for being bored and speaking up about it. Hound was, after all a friend of his as well as his bunkmate. Space at the Ark was limited since they were able to send for reinforcements and so everyone had at least one or more room mates to share their quarters with.

He made it a few hundred metres away before he decided to stop. He felt bad about leaving and wanted to come back and keep his friend company. However he didn't get very far. Something landed in front of him and was blocking the way.

He had never seen a Wraith before, but being a Minibot, the thing was just about as big as he was or bigger even and it unsettled him a little bit.

 _'Ah, dude?'_ He contacted Hound, _'You better come to my location, like now. I think a got what you've been after right here.'_


	13. Chapter 13

*Part 13*

Prowl had woken up sore all over and it was a little while before he realised that it wasn't the Ark Medical bay he was in.

His first instinct was to call the base and report his whereabouts, but his comms wasn't working, all he got was static. He also went for his weapon in case this was some elaborate scheme of the Decepticons, but it was gone, as were his shoulder mounted wire guided missiles. He was essentially defenceless, and that put him on edge.

The room he was in looked like some kind of residence and was way too lavish to be the product of some Decepticon plot, they would not go out of their way to make him feel comfortable, that much he already knew. He looked around for a while and noticed it was indeed some kind of personal apartment, whose, he did not know.

He wandered over to the semi circular window he had taken notice of; it ran along one edge of the room where he had first awoken. When he glanced out and saw what he did, he was very surprised. The view of the city like structure below reminded him so much of Cybertron, only that the devastation of war was missing from this foreign landscape.

This room wherever it was, was high up in some form of residential area. All along this end of what he presumed were living quarters, there were at least 50 or so stories on each of the pillars he could see, spotted here and there around this area of the city. The city was doted with various types of buildings and structures all similar to what Cybertron had once been before the wars had started and the people he could see down below were all going about their business in a free and easy fashion, blithe to any sort of need to rush or flee from possible weapons fire.

As he was totally engrossed in looking at everything he could see and making mental notes, that he did not see the resident of this apartment come up behind him so quietly.

"Enjoying the view?" They asked.

He tensed slowly turning around in a defensive position to protect himself. "Vanguard?" He answered surprised. He relaxed when he saw it was her. "I really wish you would stop doing that." He said flatly and turned his attention back towards the scene outside the window.

While the femme chuckled in amusement to his sense of dis-ease, she asked, "You want a drink?"

"Sure." He replied.

After pouring a glass of energon from a dispenser in the wall, she came over and joined him at the window.

Prowl could not fathom how one person could live in a room so big, not even their main rec room was this size, only their Command Centre was comparable. "This is all yours?" He asked.

"Yep." She grinned. "I'm not here very often, hence the sparse furnishings but you're welcome to drop by anytime you want to visit. At the moment, the City Council has strict rules about who comes and goes here. But really, the way things have been of late, I don't care, if I want you here, I will have you here." She vented and paused, "I just wanted to show you this."

"Well it is impressive!" He said as he sipped the energon. "Our quarters at the Ark aren't even this spacious and…"

Prowl was cut off mid sentence as Vanguard's gauntlet began to buzz.

"Yes what is it?" She asked of the caller.

' _Vanguard, Stakeout was wondering if you could come down to Security Central and lend a hand for a bit. We're having some trouble in the Medical bay with an unauthorised person, and Heartbeat wants them removed.'_ Replied the femme on the other end.

"Do you know who?" Vanguard asked curiosly, wondering why she had been personally requested.

' _Galaxy brought Starscream here.'_

Vanguard sighed, "Ok Ricochet, I'll be down shortly." She looks at Prowl, "Um you better tell Stakeout that I have someone with me too."

' _Stakeout already knows he is here, but right now we have to deal with this other problem first.'_ The femme mused, _'Ricochet out.'_

Beachcomber wasn't very happy right now and obviously nor was the thing sitting on him, "Uh, nice kitty!"

He had what he presumed to be one of these Wraith creatures that Hound had told him about, it had him pinned to the ground, it wouldn't let him up.

Hound had only just arrived when someone who was with the cat like creature made themselves known. A voice called out, "What is it Livewire, have you caught something…oh?" The human was surprised when it saw that the beast had two somethings, "Uh hello?" The female human introduced herself, "You are the Autobot called Hound aren't you?" Hound nodded. "I am Terry, and you are?" She queried as she made a gesture for the beast to get off the white and blue one.

"I'm Beachcomber."

"Nice to meet you both." She looked over at the wraith and grimaced at it. It was hanging its head sorrowfully and not looking at the human. "Sorry about her, she gets over excited when she's on watch duty. She knows what you are but was just protecting us."

"Us?" Hound was curious.

"Yes, some friends and I are camping here in the forest." She noticed Hound's curious interest in the large cat beast and asked, "Would you like to join us?"

Hound answered enthusiastically when he realised he would be able to get close to what he was looking for. "You're invited too Beachcomber." The female said as she wandered off towards the supposed campsite.

Beachcomber looked at Hound. "Well this is turning' out t'be interestin'!" He commented.

"Just to be on the safe side, we better radio back and let them know we will be out here a while." Hound answered.

"Will do." The Minibot answered.

"I demand that you release me at once, do you hear me! Release me now or I'll…"

"You'll what?" Vanguard answered as soon as she could hear the screeching of an all too familiar Decepticon. "There isn't much you can do Starscream, all your weapons have been removed as a procedural safety precaution while here."

Prowl hadn't followed Vanguard into the room until now as he was being questioned by a tall, confident yet friendly femme he presumed must have been Stakeout, the Head of Security. He had noticed that they hadn't needed Vanguard's help after all. She had asked when they both walked in how she was supposed to help, but another had informed them that they had instead secured the Air Commander to a bed instead of removing him.

The Head of the Medical department was standing by against one wall and was not happy. She however was being patient and waiting for him to be removed.

"I demand to know what I am doing here?" Starscream questioned.

"I have no idea." Vanguard answered. She looked around the room and the security team present all shrugged.

"I brought him here for my own reasons." Said a flat cold voice Vanguard recognised instantly.

Vanguard knew the history between these two and she wondered what the femme was up to, wondering whether she was acting alone or on another's say so. It was rare for her to act alone though. She was just as much a schemer as Starscream was, but she however was not a weasel, she came right out and said things in a cold and yet honest fashion, but always chose her words wisely and carefully.

She turned to leave the room and passed by Stakeout. The Head of Security was talking to three femmes and had asked them to stay posted at the doors.

"Any idea?" She asked the femme

"Its Galaxy's thing, she will take care of it. Rei' or Shades probably wants him for something." Was the flat reply. "And him?" She pointed at Prowl.

"He is my problem."

"Well you better make sure he gets scanned into the system and given a security tag if you're going to be bringing him here more." She grinned as she walked away. "I'll take care of things for him if you want. I won't bother telling anyone what happened today though if you don't want me to."

Vanguard knew the femme had picked her brains. Stakeout was a master psionicist and was stronger than she was. She mostly knew what was going on everywhere in this city, and this was one of the reasons why the femme, although younger, was the Head of Security and not Vanguard.

Stakeout yelled out from down the hall, "You take care of her Prowl; you'll never find another femme like Vanguard!"

Vanguard started laughing heartily, leaving a confused look on Prowl's faceplate as he didn't know about Stakeout.

"Well she isn't what I expected of someone who would be the Head of Security."

"Excuse me Sir?" Asked a small young femme by the side of the two, "Will you follow me please." And she wandered away fully expecting Prowl to follow her.

Prowl looked to Vanguard, "It's ok, that's Watchtower, she's Stakeout's secretarial aid, she's taking you to get security clearance. You get yourself clearance and you won't have to wait for me to bring you here all the time!" The femme grinned, "Which will work out better for me in the long run, no audio bashing from anyone!"

The Autobot was curious and was quietly taking in everything as it happened, "What is going to happen to Starscream?" He asked.

"I think Galaxy, she was the femme coloured like Skywarp in the Medical bay," Vanguard answered, "Will probably take him downstairs to see someone." She continued, "And as dangerous as he usually is, he isn't much of a threat here as he will be taken care of. The security teams here are well trained enough to handle just one rogue Decep' should he happen to get loose."

"And what if he does get out and reveals the location of this base?"

"The reason Prowl that you're getting a security clearance is because this isn't a base, it's a whole other planet in another dimension" Watchtower paused and stressed the next sentence. "If Starscream should get out then the virus already injected into him will activate and automatically block the ability of repeating anything to anyone through that, it's for our protection and continued existence here from outsiders who would do us harm and expose us to the outside world. Only security clearance prevents nano-injection to which you have been aproved."

Prowl stopped and looked her, "You all seem to have everything well organised, but you don't seem to account for the unpredictability that the Decepticons can at times express. Personally I think you should have protocols in place just in case it does happen so you know what to do if all hell breaks loose. You don't know Starscream like I do."

"Rest assured Sir that we do indeed have all the proper protocols and procedures in place for any such emergency." Chimed in the small femme, then she wandered off to another desk to call upon some other staff.

Vanguard pointed them out, "The dark femme is Roulette, she is one of Ricochet's sisters and is part of the main security team here in the city. The big dark blue one is a field Medic called Earthquake, she's here on loan from the Primordia Ssystem"

Prowl didn't flicker an optic as the two femmes came over and gave him instructions. First he was asked to press one of his digits onto a plate that spiked him, and took a fluid sample. Then he was asked to put this digit on some kind of scanner and he watched as all his technical details were brought up onto a computer screen nearby.

The small femme Watchtower took the disc that was ejected out of the machine. "Please do not lose this as it will be the only copy you will be given." She then asked him to hold his hand out palm up and explained that the disc would seal itself into the metal of his hand and all he had to do when entering was to place his hand up and ask for access and a trans dimensional door to this place will be opened for him. She then went on to explain that he only had basic security access and so would be limited to where he could go in the city as he had only been issued with a visitors level access and would only be permitted to the residential and commercial areas.

Prowl asked what would happen if his hand should be damaged and it was then explained to him. He saw as Watchtower placed the disc in his upturned hand and it dissolved into his metal skin. A design of yellow and white lines of light weaved itself into a pattern on his palm and as he turned his hand over, it also did the same on the upper side. And then as quickly as it was created, it was gone.

"You will find that the actual security access is now a coalescing code engram on your processor, so that when ever you hand is blown off or removed, the code will retract from the metal skin in your hand and use some other surface when called upon.

"Very Interesting?" Prowl pondered as he looked over both sides of his hand, "I'm sure Perceptor and Wheeljack would be very interested in this kind of technology."

"Oh do not forget you will not be able to discuss anything from here. Part of accepting that disc program is also a non disclosure agreement. Should attempt to talk about us to anyone, while you will remember, you cannot speak about us unless spoken to.

Prowl scowled at the fact he had been duped into accepting the access disc but accepted the fact as logical nonetheless. But something else came to mind. "What if someone removes my hand and attempts to use it for access?"

"They will not be able to." She showed him the screen that still had his details on it. It showed his spark pulse still beating away as well as his other vitals. "Everything is connected. If the program loses touch with your sparkbeat, then it will cease to function. And if it is forced, it will activate the nano-virus into your system to protect itself." She looked up at him. "You must understand that this is how we run things here. It is how we have always run things. If and when we need to change it, we will, in the meantime, everything is fine the way it is."

Prowl nodded to accept that. While he did not know who these beings were, they may prove useful contacts in the future for him.

"Now if you would," She showed them a doorway that led back home, " I will show you out the door!"

Starscream had been at first taken into this facility wherever it was and then tackled and secured to a bed in some place that looked like a Medical bay. He had not liked that, he did not like being chained down like some common criminal, like an animal.

Then these femmes had the audacity to unchain him and proceed to escort him along with Galaxy's company to somewhere else.

Starscream took note of the rich resources this place had and smiled. _'This place is just ripe for the taking!'_ He thought to himself. He just wished his comms and his GPS were working so he could record the exact co-ordinates. He presumed this place must be deep underground for a facility of this size to house so many mechanoids. If it had been above ground, then the Decepticon Army would have discovered it years ago and would be its rulers, enslaving all these unworthy mechs and femmes into working for them and doing their bidding. He smirked at that.

He wondered just how far underground they were. The lift they were escorting him in had gone a fair few floors down and he had lost count until it finally reached only what he would probably call the bottom.

When they got out, he noticed that he was left alone with Galaxy and the other femmes went back up in the elevator.

The room they stopped at was large and dark, and as he looked around, he noticed the red optics staring back at him in the darkness. The very shape of them, thin and menacing and very high, suggesting a tall mechanoid, reminded him of someone, then it dawned upon him. Something went clunk and he heard chains, like they were dropping off of something and onto the ground.

"No it couldn't be?" He had just realised that both the white femme they had fought earlier, Vanguard, and also Galaxy had been on a ship they had attacked and successfully crippled in Cybertronian airspace quite a long time ago.

But then his paternal unit was on that ship also. Reignfire was the pre-eminent General second only to Megatron at the time and was standing in Starscream's way of authority of his own. When his father had gone onto the ship with his squad to stop the crew from carrying out its mission, Starscream had issued an order to destroy the Genesis, not caring if his father died as a result. Some who were loyal to Reignfire had gone into the crumbling ship to fight with their Commander, only to be destroyed along with him.

He thought he had gotten away with it, removed the obstructions in his way and the loyalists all in one fell swoop. Or so he thought?

Reignfire could see the look of abject terror on his offspring faceplate as Starscream started to step back as he stepped forward. In his rush Starscream tripped and fell back onto the floor and wasn't able to get up in time before Reignfire stepped forward to grab him around the neck.

Starscream had his arms chained to his feet but he was still able to try and pry his disgruntled father's hand from around his neck cables and hydraulics. He could see that time hadn't been kind to this old ex General. He was covered in scratches and dents, the once proud and glorious vanity that this warrior had once had in himself was gone.

"Ugh." Reignfire was disgusted. He tossed Starscream away like a rag doll.

Starscream noticed he had not lost any of his strength though, in fact he felt stronger than he had known the behemoth to be in the past. He had been thrown hard against a wall and some fuel line had become crushed and lacerated against something else and started seeping down his refuelling line, making him cough up energon and some other fluids he did not care to want to taste right now.

He was struggling to get himself up and looked over to the femme, "Why have you brought me here? You think that having him beat me will give you the retribution you think you deserve. You femme are _nothing_ to me!" He screeched fervently.

Galaxy only raised one brow ridge at him and then turned her attention to Reignfire.

Starscream cursed himself for taking his attention off of his father as he had come in close and pummelled him to the lower trunk casing with a hard kick, making him curl up and cough up even more fluids.

While he lay there coughing and wheezing trying to get his vents to cycle after having them crushed by Reignfire's kick, he thought more upon the situation he was now in.

"Haven't you realised this by now that it's not about her, it's about you and my two younglings you had no right to touch, and now I want them back." Reignfire grabbed one of Starscream's wings and started buckling the metal, making the Wing Commander gasp in pain. He did not cry out because his pride wouldn't allow him to, that and he didn't want to give his father the satisfaction of seeing him do so.

When Reignfire let go and walked away, Starscream slowly managed to sit himself up against the wall and started thinking about those two younglings, venting heavily to ease the pain he was feeling from his bent and crumpled wing blade and then he thought about the two strange Decepticon youngsters. It seemed, according to his father they were indeed Cybertronians, although clothed in human forms. Now here he had information being provided to him that he knew Megatron didn't have, it would be a distinct advantage when he returned to the base, if he ever got out of here that was.

For a moment he thought of the past.

His own father had rejected him and abandoned his maternal unit when he was young, just on the verge of becoming one of the most pre-eminent graduates of the Science Academy of Altihex at the time. But the rejection had sent him spiralling into darker places, taking his life path to the Kaonian Pit fights and into the ranks of the Decepticons in order to prove he was something worthy of recognition.

That was when he had found out his father and older brother were already part of the Decepticon forces. His father had always favoured his older brother and Starscream had murdered Sunstorm out of that pettiness. He had come to the conclusion that he would brook no competition from anyone as was his right to authority. By that time, his place in the Decepticon Army was already solid and all that mattered was the power and prestige his position as Air Commander offered, a position his father held back then.

He had a long line of destruction and death behind him, and he didn't care if he had to add the two younglings to that list if they outlived their usefulness, despite Megatron selfishly keeping the female under his control at the moment and the male being Primus knew where, neither were any threat to him, but they could still be useful.

Reignfire had referred to them as his. And he was Reignfire's only other living offspring so far as he knew. Could the younglings be related to him if his father had said they were his? _'Very interesting!'_ He thought to himself, _'Very interesting indeed.'_

Galaxy as he recalled had been the only femme he had ever been with as her scientific aptitude and cold emotionless nature had so intrigued him to the point of infatuation. He of course discarded and turned on her once he had his way and she was of no more use to him. Could these younglings have anything to do with her, or with him?

He looked up at her and she at him, not changing her stone cold expression. He was not able to read anything from her and that frustrated him. He did not really care if they could be his offspring or not, they were just bargaining chips as far as he was concerned. Starscream had no love for anyone but himself.

Aurora had gone to her grandmother's horse ranch for a few days to escape from life for a short while. Her grandmother had been someone who was on the crew of the Genesis when it crashed but neither knew who each other were till years later. It was the farmhouse on the other side of the Dean Manor estate where the other business buildings were located. It that helped every now and again for Aurora to get away from people, to clear her head, to think about the goings on of life.

In the last fifty years since finding her lost relatives, she had come to adopt her grandmothers philosophy of faith that everything works out for a reason. She was much of a control freak and didn't always let go, but she at least tried. And when it got too much, she came here to talk.

She had helped a lot of refuges and ex-patriots from Cybertron who had turned up on Earth as well as ex-criminals be rehabilitated, including her own father who was a passenger on the Genesis. And she wasn't usually the type that showed she cared but she did care even if she didn't show it, more so to her own family whom she had not known until the ship had crashed on Earth.

Not many were happy with the decision she had chosen to make about Violet and Victor. Especially after Victor had been MIA for a while and the media was in a frenzy over it, being that he was well known and missed, especially by all his female fans. Violet not as much, she was a brilliant young scientific genius and preferred anonymity to her brother's famous lifestyle.

Aurora had to admit that it wasn't one of her better decisions and she hoped that things would turn out ok, but even she had her doubts about leaving Violet with the Decepticons.

She just needed time to think about her decision and the farm was a very welcoming place for such things.

For once she and her grandmother were not at each others throats like usual, both being very stubborn and powerful personalities and rubbed each other up. Plus they often fought tooth and nail as her grandmother would take no crap from the younger femme, as Aurora often riled her up on purpose. But today both were getting along quietly.

While her grandmother had gone down to the barn to tend to some of the horses in the stables, she was inside the house sitting back relaxing, trying to enjoy some music practice. It was when she heard the sudden noise of laser blasts reverberating off of the ground that she took off her headphones and went outside to see what was wrong.

She sighed.

She had been followed to the farm. _'When is he ever going to give up chasing me?'_ She thought.

Her grandmother, while a former mercenary, wanted anonymity here on Earth and wanted nothing to do with her old life and her old business. She was one of the Cybertronians who had accepted life on earth outside of the hidden city and she was enjoying the peace here through her life with her farm.

She knew about the Autobots, about Jazz and what information had been revealed to them, but they did not know about her.

For the last few weeks when Jazz wasn't busy he had been annoying Aurora like crazy. He was the only one out of all the Autobots who knew who she really was as far as Aurora or her family knew, and he was another one of the reasons she went to her grandmother's farm, to get away from them, so she could relax in peace.

Even though she had blocked the signal on her cell to stop him being so friendly, he still found ways to call her and track her down and she was getting annoyed by it all.

Aurora came outside onto the porch to see Jazz in his full robot form trying his best to avoid being shot by the guns her grandmother kept close by. She had a pair of photon cannons handy when needed to drive away unsavoury people if need be. She wasn't in the mood to entertain today with Aurora feeling the way she was.

"Get off me property ya overgrown piece of scrap metal, or I'll make ya leave." The old woman demanded.

He was at first overly concerned about the advanced weaponry the old woman was using on him, but dodged all her blasts. But then he spotted Aurora standing there on the porch watching him dance around the old woman's shots. "Hey there Shades, how 'bout you ask this nice lady to stop shootin' at me, then we can sit an' talk eh?" He begged.

All Aurora did was laugh at the big white Porsche and then walk inside.

It did however create a lull in the shots being fired and Jazz looked meekly in the old woman's direction to see what was going on. She came up to the porch and glared at him with her gun barrel down. "You two know each other?" She asked, puffing through her cigar.

"Kinda." He replied.

"You're from the Ark ain't ya, mate? One o' those Autobot soldiers? I've seen ya on TV, Jazz ain't it?"

"Yeah that'd be me, how ya doin'? He put his hand out in a friendly fashion.

She scoffed at him and wandered over to the windowsill behind her to stub out the rest of the cigar she had been smoking. "But since 'Rory did recognise ya and 'asn't killed ya yet mate, I might let ya live for now, eh?" Once she got up to her front door and put her gun away she turned back and asked, "Get in 'ere already." And she disappeared inside.

Jazz figured she meant for him to size shift down to human size to fit into the house. But he could have used his Pretender shell also, being that he was one of the few Autobots who had them. He decided to go with the former.

"Get your aft in 'ere before I decide t'change me mind ya slagger, I know ya got one o'those Pretender shell things."

Jazz vented and thought to himself, _'Strange people?'_ He however came inside like he was told and sat down across from Aurora and grinned at her.

"You know you're still a pain in the aft, right?" She stated.

"All the better to be here in your company!" He charmed.

"Ugh" Aurora huffed as she shook her head. "Don't you have something better to do with your free time than follow me around like a bad smell?"

"No, not really!" Jazz grinned.

"A real charmer ain't he, darlin'!" The old woman joked. She noticed Jazz was staring a bit and then said her name, "Name's Wynona." And offered her hand for him to shake in greeting.

"Ok well at least I know what t'call ya now!" He replied.

She humphed and looked intently at the white mech, "You look like an old mate of mine, his name was Spectrum, ya know 'im mate?"

"Sure I do, that's my paternal unit's name." Jazz answered. But this question got him curious, why would a human know a Cybertronian. His father had been permanently offline for some time, like the rest of his family, all killed in the war much to his chagrin, a painful spot he kept hidden from almost everyone. He figured she must be of a fair age to know his father. "You're Cybertronian then, just like she is?" He thumbed to Aurora.

"Well?" Wynona looked at the younger femme who was hiding behind a newspaper, then turned back to Jazz, "There ain't nobody I know who's been made the way she is, but yeah we're both Cybertronian." The old femme smiled over the information Jazz had told her about one of his parents. "You must be Spectrum and Escapade's youngest then. I remember them having one young mech that liked white plating. From what I remember, that one was quite a handful!"

Aurora managed to stifle a snicker while pretending to read the paper she had in her hands.

Wynona had gotten up and retrieved two cups from the cupboard, then went over to a wall dispenser out of sight and came back to the table, giving them both to Aurora and Jazz.

"Drink." Wynona said flatly.

"What is it?" Jazz asked.

"Smell it and you'll find out youngin'!" She mused.

After discovering it was some kind of premium oil, Jazz drunk it with aplomb, all in one go. Being on Earth for so long, and the fact that supplies like this were scarce back home, he thoroughly enjoyed the taste.

Putting the cup down, he looked over at Aurora who had folded up the paper and put it down. He noticed that the younger femme and the older one looked kind of similar in their human forms and had to wonder if they were related. "So how do you two know each other? Were you both crew on the Genesis?"

Aurora glared at him in annoyance as she got up and left the table and went through a nearby doorway elsewhere.

"No." Wynona said flatly. She wasn't quite ready to tell Jazz who she was outright, but she figured it was safe to tell him about her connections to Aurora. "I was, she wasn't. And as for how we know each other, she's me Granddaughter."

"Really? She's your granddaughter?" He said incredulously, "Then I bet you were a real looker when you were her age!"

"As a matter of fact I was, just ask Ironhide!" Wynona laughed at first, but then she stopped, she couldn't believe she let that one slip. It must be the company of this one she thought to herself. Now she understood what had happened with some of the other femmes who had let information slip.

That sparked Jazz's interest. There weren't many old mechanoids who were still surviving from Ironhide's time, being that he was an old soldier himself. As to who this femme really was, it was beginning to make him think. "You're really that old huh?" He asked innocently.

"Watch it you. I only let ya stay in one piece 'cause o' Rory." She said. "The fact she walked away from ya without y'getting' so much as a scratch, told me she knew ya. But keep bein' a punk and you're out th'door on you're aft mech."

Jazz could tell by the look the old femme gave him that she meant business and he didn't want to be shot up by her gun again. He already had dirt and sand in his peds and didn't want any more grinding uncomfortably on his ped gears.

"Anyhow kid, nice chattin' with ya but this ol' girls' got work to do, need to round up me Gee's from the south pasture." She got up, put a jacket on and walked towards the front door. "Ya wanna stay 'ere with Rory, then go down the hall and take the last door on the left." Wynona then left Jazz on his own and walked out the door.

He found his way down to the room and saw that Aurora was practicing on her bass guitar. "Mind if I jam with ya?"

She continued to play and looked up at him curiously. She wasn't aware that he was actually able to play, but then this Autobot had a musical reputation, so it wasn't really a wonder at all to her, and she was curious about his skills.

She inclined to a guitar set up on the other side of the room. She kept playing and watched Jazz hook it up to an amp and test it a bit before he tried to pick up on the tune she was playing.

She smirked. She wasn't going to let him outdo her in her favourite department, music. But no matter how complicated she made the riffs he kept right up with her, until she finally stopped.

"So why are you here, I mean why do you keep bothering me all the time?" She finally asked him.

"Well, why not?" He mused.

"That's not an answer." She said flatly. "That's just slag."

"Well maybe a nice cool mech like me thinks a good lookin' chica like y'self needs a special friend!"

"Oh that's real charming Jazz." She huffed, "But you realise I'm not the slightest bit interested in you at all, right? You'd have better luck with Wynona."

"Not even the slightest?" He asked hoping for a response.

She couldn't help but laugh. Despite the fact Jazz was a constant annoyance, he was also very incorrigible and no matter how much she pushed him away he would step that one little bit closer. She just wasn't used to it because she was the one who was usually in control.

"There you go!" He mused, "At least you can smile!" And he went back to strumming the guitar he had.

Aurora just kept smiling and then took her own up again and played along with him.


	14. Chapter 14

*Part 14*

Violet had been slowly counting the days, grateful that her internal chronometer was working and had not yet been affected by all these changes she was going through.

For the last fortnight, another layer of soft metallic skin had begun to replace her human looking one, her complexion now completely a silver colour. Some spots had even started to harden into metal plates, especially around her joints. She no longer had to worry about clothes now, being that all over she was reminiscent of a machine or humanoid cyborg with human like hair and eyes.

How hard her skin actually was now, she did not know as she had nothing really to test it on other than the Cassette twins who were still fervently annoying her like the delinquents they were. She often had to defend herself against them on a verbal level as they had taken their bullying to extremes at times. She avoided using her martial skills as much as she could to stay out of trouble, but was fast becoming short tempered with them.

Due to her increase in size, being that she was now about a metre taller than both of the twins, instead of being two thirds their size like before, she was now taller than the average human by nearly twice the size. At least with her being this tall and robotic looking, she was less regarded with disgust as she did odd work around the base in Soundwave's company.

Due to whatever reasons, she was still functional and being kept in Soundwave's lab on Megatron's orders. She figured she must still hold some value in some form or another. She assumed she was being watched like some kind of experiment, and was glad her journal and notes had yet to be discovered.

So she just bided her time and put up with them as best she could until she could find a way out of this predicament herself, being that she knew her Aunt had declined to rescue her. She hadn't taken that news well when told, but she understood in a way why her Aunt may have chosen that, she may have some things she could learn while here, she was used to her Aunt giving her some missions to do here and there, this would be no different.

But it wasn't always been peaches and cream.

She'd already suffered the humiliation about a week and a half ago of being left at the mercy of the Constructicons. The experience was mind numbing if not interesting to say the least as it had allowed her to discover things about herself also, even if at the mercy of these weird Decepticon Combiners.

They had been ordered by Megatron to input some new control programs into her cerebral cortex but had found the programming they had first taken a scan of when she came into their company no longer accessible no matter how hard they tried to hack into it.

She was originally told that when she would reach about fifty Earth years her changes would start naturally, but here she was less than that. She was also told that when the changes started, her CPU and it systems would find extra ways to protect itself from any outside influences while going through the process till it was complete.

Hook had attempted to initiate a core control program, like the one that was running in the component around her neck but something that ran within her systems instead, being that the femme had outgrown the cables that were attached to her spinal array.

Megatron had come to the conclusion that if she was indeed growing and evolving like that of a sparkling into an adult mechanoid then it would favour him to have control programs in place inside her cerebral cortex before her systems finished their progress so that he may control her.

He did not have the resources of Shockwave to bring his Cybertronian Commander to Earth to work past the barriers that would inevitably develop within the femme's CPU and so had to rely upon the limited resources of the Constructicons to carry out his plan.

Unfortunately it hadn't worked.

Her progression from an android human to sparkling was too quick and she was growing fast, the more energon she was being fed. A mistake Megatron made on his part to garner the power of this femme quicker and Hook was not able to secure the program within her systems in time.

But Megatron had come to a new conclusion, that the collar had been blocking the power flow that her brother had shown previously. He'd had no collar which was Starscream's first mistake, but she had and so far had shown no ounce of power. And so he had it removed. Not that it would have helped to stay on any longer anyhow.

In the past week her old abilities had started to return. She'd hoped to use them secretly to help her survive in this place as it didn't look like she'd be able to do so without them. She was grateful that she had been able to keep the power hidden so far, but she guessed it wouldn't be for long.

Since he could no longer get access to the femmes CPU, Megatron instead had Hook fashion some control bracelets for the femme to keep her subservient as required and on their base and so she could be studied more for this power she supposedly had.

Somewhere on the Decepticon's underwater base.

"What do you mean you don't remember?" Megatron growled, "Starscream you've been noticeably absent for two weeks since Skywarp and Thundercracker reported you missing, and you have the gall to claim you don't know where you've been?"

Starscream did actually remember everything, but for some reason he could not put together the ability to bring it out of his vocalisers and say something. Every time he tried to utter the words, he was encumbered by a pain in his CPU that stopped him from talking about it, and he was finding it as frustrating as the Pit.

"Get out of my sight." Megatron bellowed.

Starscream soured his expression and reluctantly left the room. He was too weak to protest. He had barely made it back here after awakening in some out of the way Airport hanger. How he had gotten there he could not recall.

He had not really remembered that much from the last two weeks but had felt all the bruises and scratches and abrasions to his beautiful paint job that his father had dealt him.

But still, he had been able to talk about the fact he had seen Reignfire. This had been of much interest to Megatron, the fact that a former General of his whom he thought had been terminated in the destruction of that ship, was still functional, as were several other Decepticons whom Starscream had seen. What troubled him more was why these soldiers had not returned to them.

Starscream however didn't talk about the other matter that Reignfire had mentioned in regards to the younglings. This matter he would follow up on himself. In regards to the female youngling, it was the first thing he had noticed when he returned to the base and he had grinned.

Megatron sat in his control room chair pondering on the little scraps of information Starscream had been able to seemingly give him and wondered to himself about this turn of events. A shuffling of feet nearby reminded him that the small femme was still finishing some repair work in the control room. But with him being annoyed by Starscream he wasn't really in the mood for company.

He vented out. He wanted to keep this femme as close as possible either in his company or with Soundwave. Starscream couldn't be trusted with her now that the power he believed she had may begin to show any time now. "Return to Soundwave's quarters and stay there until ordered to leave by either myself or Soundwave."

She had no choice but to accede to the command.

But when she got to the door to Soundwave's lab, she had been beaten there by Starscream. He was leaning against the wall, outside the closed door. What he was doing there she didn't know, but she couldn't exactly try and escape him as she had been ordered to stay in the lab until further notice and the Seeker was blocking the door.

Starscream had figured she would either be kept in the control room, around Megatron or here with Soundwave and took a chance in choosing to come here.

She tried to slow down and find a way around him but he wasn't exactly avoidable, nor was he small like she was. The compulsion inside her head to get into the lab was throbbing in her every moment she chose to wait to try and get around him, but it wasn't helping any.

As much as she tried to evade him, he finally got close enough to shoot her with his null rays and carry her off.

She awoke sometime later somewhere other than the hallway in which she was previously, only to find she wasn't alone.

She had been placed on some kind of plush couch in some fancy room. She recognised the usual walls of the Decepticon base and surmised she must be in someone's personal quarters.

"I see that you are finally online again." Mused the Air Commander.

She looked up at the looming form, not at all trusting of the reputation this one had over the rest of the Decepticons she had met over the last few weeks. She was presuming he was more dangerous than some of the others she had met thus far and was wary of him, despite not being afraid. She had also noticed that Starscream had cleaned and fixed some of his injuries while she was out of it, meaning she may have been offline for quite some time.

She thinned her optics, "What do you want?"

"So what do you think of all this business about Reignfire?" He asked coyly. He had taken note of her expression when Reignfire had been talked about in the control room.

She hesitated, knowing she was not compelled to answer anything he asked for. She had been listening in but couldn't speak up.

"I asked you a question femme, what do you think of this information I had about Reignfire?" She mumbled something under her breath that Starscream didn't quite catch. "You are going to have to speak louder if you want to be heard, especially if you want to maintain your usefulness femme, I am not one to be trifled with. Now answer the question again and do so this time so that I can hear you clearly." He demanded.

She really didn't want to tell him anything about her Grandfather. She knew that he had some past dealings with the Decepticons before but was completely unaware of any relations he had in regards to any importance or rank he had. The fact that he didn't act like any Decepticon she had seen, made her wonder about her Grandfather and what he had told her about himself.

But the problem was Starscream was more astute than Violet gave him credit for. "Well?" He knew she was hiding something.

She looked up at him curiously, "Well what?" She asked back, "There is nothing to tell." She tried to hide.

Starscream could tell that the small femme was holding out on him, but considering she was not under his control, she could either lie or be honest.

"Nothing? Really?" He said smugly, "I heard differently. Reignfire seems to hold both you and your brother in high esteem as his personal possessions." He spat out the last part with such vehemence she thought she was going to be hit by the Seeker, considering the murderous look that was now on the Seekers faceplate. He wasn't going to let a little prat like this small femme think he was intensely jealous of the attention his father now garnered towards her and her brother.

She figured it was dangerous to try and bargain with him, but she was sure she could get around him with carefully placed information.

"You know I don't have to answer your questions, right?" She could be coy also.

Starscream looked at her wrist, as did she. She noticed that she only wore one of them now. She had also realised that the inner compulsion to want to return to Soundwave's lab as ordered wasn't as strong as it should have been, she had let it slip from her mind as a result, not noticing one of the wristbands had been removed.

She'd cottoned onto Starscream's bribe for information almost immediately, but she wasn't going to talk very quickly. "Unlocking one of my control braces isn't going to get me to be that co-operative." She revealed.

He raised his arm guns and clicked the triggers, "Then perhaps I should destroy you on the spot little femme."

"And what purpose would that serve. You wouldn't get your questions answered and then you'd have to explain to Megatron why you broke his new toy." She didn't like referring to herself in that fashion, but if she had learnt anything from being in the company of her Aunt and friends, it was how to manipulate words, just as she had been doing with the others these last few weeks while being their prisoner.  
Starscream grunted and then sat down and lounged on the other end of the couch. This femme had spent possibly her entire life amongst humans and as a result did not think like a mere child of their kind or even his own would.

At that moment she felt the pang of a near empty fuel reserve and her tank growled in hunger for more fuel, it had been low when she had headed over to the lab, and she would have refuelled there had it not been for Starscream's intervention.

All Starscream did was grin, as sitting on the table in front of the couch was two sealed flasks of energon, both full, and both smelling very enticing to Violet as she stared at both in earnest.

"Tell me what I want to know femme, and perhaps I will see to it that one of these two flasks is yours." He chimed.

At first he had not actually believed that he had been gone for two weeks, but considering how much the femme had changed since he was on the base last, she could only be going through the usual sparkling evolution programs and would be hungry for fuel all the time, and bribing her with energon was a last resort. Being she had not been co-operative so far, he would have to use them.

And so before she had awoken he had poured energon into two plass flasks from his private stores as well as refuelling himself and waited for her to come online again.

She didn't want to be subject to that kind of blackmail, but she was starving for fuel. "The name's Violet." She burst out; she was tired of being called 'femme' by the 'Cons. "No need for you to call me 'femme' all the time. I have a name, use it."

Starscream snorted at her indignant attitude towards him and was so very close to raising his hands to injure her to tell him what he wanted, but he must stick to the plan and not lay a digit on her so as to draw Megatron's attention in any way.

With Violet's changes coming on harder and faster now, she was always needing fuel. Megatron was fine with letting her consume the energon, to which she was already taking a large fuel ration, just so he could get his digits on her power and use her as a weapon for his purposes. She knew that the Decepticon leader and perhaps a few others knew she was Cybertronian but certainly differently made than the normal mechanoid, and Megatron wanted that power for himself and his cause, even if it meant making her a slave to his will.

Since being brought here this was a possibility Violet had to face. It was no different than other situations she had been in, only this time she wasn't dealing with humans, but her own kind.

She knew she was serving a purpose by being here, but she did not know why or how she was supposed to survive here on the Decepticon base and for how long. Her Aunt had not told her much other than telling her to try and make the most of it.

She just wasn't looking forward to the days ahead and she hoped that when the time came, she would be able to decide she wanted to go home to her family. She knew exactly what could happen to captives when they were incarcerated for long periods of time with the enemy and she didn't want to become one of them.

For a moment though, it made her wonder, that wherever her brother was in his time lost state, if he was going through something similar, whether he would one day return home also.

Starscream had the same designs on the androids that Megatron had, he wanted them for himself for the strange yet powerful forms they represented and could possibly be. He also wondered how many more like these two were out there, who had designed and built them, and whether he could manipulate this one into working for him, to make his own army against Megatron.

Violet so wanted to just grab the flasks and make a run back to the lab, but a quick glance at the door to Starscream's quarters told her she wouldn't make it. The door was most likely locked. And Starscream would probably shoot her with his null rays before she got off the couch and she would be back to square one again. That and she wasn't big enough to carry them both full, running back the whole way.

"Tell me about Reignfire?" Starscream stressed to her again. He put a plass cylinder on the table and poured out some energon from one flask into it.

She was starving and wouldn't be able to hold out for long, so she just decided to answer the questions and hope she could steer him away from any information that would be helpful to him.

"Other than the fact his name is Reignfire, there is not much to tell." She answered back. She made a pre-emptive grab for the glass, but he moved it away from her.

"Perhaps you had better tell me something that is more worthwhile before I decide to give this to you?" He mused.

What was there to tell? "Depends on what you want to know? It's going to cost you." She grinned. She had to play his game and hope she could weasel her way out of it and return to the relative safety of Soundwave's lab before she was discovered missing.

"Tell me more about your connection to Reignfire?"

"Why?" She asked. "What use could that information be of to you?"

"Just answer the question and we will both get what we want." He answered her back very curtly, tapping his digits on the glass.

She openly lied to steer him away from making her say anything. "There's not much I can say about my connection to anyone you ask about."

Starscream knew she was trying to outwit him, avoiding the questions by asking more questions. If he was going to get everything out of her, he had to play the game better than she was trying, and he was by far the master at it. "So do you even know what your maternal unit's name is?"

She wasn't about to go and tell him that her mother had a humanised alt mode and she hid behind that human face more often than her Cybertronian one. Although considering she and her mother didn't get along, she considered telling Starscream just out of pure spite, and gave him her Cybertronian name. "Galaxy."

She tried to grab the glass but Starscream held it up in his hand. She scowled, she could tell he wanted her to elaborate but she just wanted to be obstinate.

She sighed, "What?"

"And your paternal unit?"

"I have no idea, never met him, don't even know his name. He's probably some whack job scientist just like my mother is and I don't really care if he's functional or not." She was desperately hungry now. She quickly lunged forward and grabbed the glass out of his digits and scrambled back to her corner on the couch as far away as possible from the Air Commander before he could object to her taking it.

There was a momentary look of confusion on Starscream's faceplate when she had mentioned her mother's name and the Seeker went quiet, he was thinking about how much use this information could be of to him.

Reignfire and Galaxy had revealed nothing to him and nor had the youngling, which didn't help him to know who she really was. If Galaxy was her maternal unit then he understood the femme didn't care about anything other than science, and what was stopping Reignfire from doing it himself if he obviously cared that much about the two. Something just wasn't right here. He had to get a sample to test her CNA.

Violet was still hungry for more fuel. The meagre mouthful she had thus far received wasn't enough and she wanted more. She figured she'd try to make a grab for the less than full flask while Starscream was distracted by his own thoughts, but he was too quick for her and pulled the flask away and out of her reach.

"Don't try my hospitality femme or you can leave here in pieces and Megatron will have no new toy to control and manipulate…"

Violet mumbled something under her venting just as the door opened for someone else to come in. Starscream was not able to continue his sentence as Megatron waltzed right in through the door. "What was that you were saying Starscream?"

"N-nothing Sir I…" He sputtered out as he got up to stand.

Megatron looked him up and down and then looked at Violet sitting in the other corner of the couch. "You… return to Soundwave's lab like you were told to."

Violet no longer felt the strong compulsion like before but she decided it was better to do as she was told for now. "As you wish." She plainly stated. As she passed the table in front of the couch she stopped and looked back at the flasks, one less than full and the other still untouched. She stepped back deftly and quickly grabbed the full flask, grinned up at a scowling Starscream, then bolted out of the room. She never would have been able to handle both but grabbed the larger portion for her own benefit.

Starscream made a move to go after and retrieve his property from the femme but he was stopped. "Where do you think you're going?" Megatron asked. Starscream could hear him grinding his knuckle joints.

"But she…" Starscream whined.

"Never mind about the brat, you can start by telling me exactly what it was you were doing in here?"

Violet didn't stop running till she was several corridors away. She ducked around a corner and selfishly gulped all of the energon in the flask. When she was done she carried the empty cube with her and made her way back to where she had been ordered to go.

But she didn't make it all way.

' _Ugh, what do these two want?'_ She thought to herself. _'I've had enough, if they want to start something now; I'm putting them both in their place.'_

"Well lookie what we have here?" Frenzy gleefully stated.

"If it ain't our favourite punching bag!" Rumble added.

She was clearly bigger and taller than both now but still they continued to follow her around and make their presences felt, trying to prove that they were tougher and better than she was. She was getting really sick of it to be honest.

"Don't you two dirt bags have a life to get on with or do you always go around pretending to be nothing other than what you are, pathetic?" Considering the time she had already spent around them, she was tired of their chasing her and she wasn't going to put up with it anymore. It was bad enough she had to live with them in Soundwave's Lab area.

Up until now she had been hiding her real martial skills in order to make as little impact as possible while she was here on the base and to stay out of trouble to survive longer but enough was enough.

She was grateful for all those years of combat and weapons training that her Aunt had given her. She often blended her myriad of skills for her own innate style for a greater effect, but Earth style arts were barely useable on Cybertronians, especially any passive strikes involving joint and pressure point strikes, but she made do.

Frenzy and Rumble saw her comment as unexpected.

"You can't talk to us like that!" One said.

"Yeah." Said the other.

"Let's teach her a lesson she'll never forget." Frenzy said while clicking the knuckle gears of his digits.

"Yeah, a lesson she'll never forget." Rumble added with laughing amongst themselves.

When one charged, she made herself ready while at the same time watching out for the other who may come at her from behind.

From another corridor, Skywarp and Thundercracker were on their way down to the rec room for some down time and came across the fight between Violet and the cassette twins.

In fact Skywarp was very nearly knocked off his feet by a sliding Rumble who just missed him and slammed into the wall opposite.

"Watch it pipsqueak." Skywarp growled. The purple Seeker watched as Rumble got himself up and charged at the small femme yet again, completely ignoring the Seekers comment.

"Should we do something?" Thundercracker asked his companion.

Skywarp replied, "Pit no! Let's just watch and hope they beat each others braincases out!"

After a time Skywarp's grin went to a frown, realising that the twins were quickly losing the fight.

"She isn't all that bad a fighter." Exclaimed Thundercracker, "For something that small anyhow."

"I don't get it? There's two of them and only one of her, how come they're not winning?" Skywarp asked. While he didn't like the twins, they were Decepticons and would rather root for them than the femme whom he thought of as a freak of nature.

While Skywarp's attention was plastered on the flight between them, Violet getting one of them into a headlock and punching his faceplate in, while the other tried to jump her from behind, she was indeed teaching them both a lesson in who the better fighter was.

Thundercracker was impassively watching the spectacle when he noticed Megatron approaching with a disgruntled and scowling Starscream caressing a bruised faceplate right behind him.

He tapped Skywarp's shoulder strut, "Hey 'Warp, we've got company."

Both the Seekers quickly stood aside to attention and out of the way of their Commanding Officer who was heading straight for the squabbling trio.

"What is going on here?" Megatron boomed.

The fighting suddenly stopped for a moment. Frenzy shakily got up and clutched his head casing. Violet still had Rumble in a headlock and gave the mech a punch in the face, even after Megatron spoke, making the mech clutch his now seeping nasal sensor when Violet let him go.

"She started this." The red twin claimed, the blue one nodding along with his brother.

Violet scoffed, knowing they were both trying to blame her, "You two had it coming even if I didn't start it."

"Why you…" Frenzy was about to advance on her and fight again.

"Stop. Enough, all of you." Megatron interjected. "I don't care who started it or why. You," He pointed at Violet, "Go and return to Soundwave's quarters like you were ordered."

Violet shrugs and then turns and walks to her destination.

He turned to the twins, "You two can go clean the recreational area as punishment."

Frenzy piped up, "Hey , how come she gets away with this, she ain't even one of us and we get punished?"

"Quiet Frenzy. Do not question my orders." Megatron turned and looked at Starscream for a moment and the Air Commander slinked off down the corridor to the rec room with Skywarp following behind.

Thundercracker stayed a moment, "Excuse me Sir?" He was curious about something and wanted an opportunity to question the femme.

"What is it Thundercracker?"

"Do you want me to make sure the femme actually makes it to Soundwave's lab this time?"

Megatron looked at him for a moment wondering what he was up to, but then waived him off. "Yes, now go, I have things to do."

As he watched Thundercracker disappear down the corridor, Megatron had a look around at the scuffs on the wall and saw there were several points where he recognised the distinctive silver metal from the femme's metal skin and he began to wonder just how strong she was becoming if she was able to leave dents that deep in the walls. He was also wondering what else this femme was trying to hide.

When he got up from his kneeling position of examining the walls he opened a channel on his comms. "Soundwave, report to me in my office in one breem."

The recreation room.

"So what were you up to this time to get slammed against a wall and choked like usual?"

"What makes you think anything happened?" Starscream tried to impress innocently.

"Coz' every time you end up following the Boss around meekly like that and have a cracked or bruised faceplate, its coz' you were doing something you shouldn't have been doing." He stopped to sip some energon out of the flask he had in his hand, "Just what was it you were doing?" He asked curiously.

Starscream himself was drinking and didn't respond straight away to his wing mate's curious question. Starscream sighed, "Wouldn't you like to know!" He had taken the sample of the femmes CAN and analysed it, confirming his suspicions.

"Err, but didn't I just do that?" Skywarp asked.

Starscream scoffed, "She is Galaxy's creation, her daughter. That's what I found out about the femme." He left his connection out of the conversation.

"Are you serious? You mean to tell me that horrid little freak and I are related." Skywarp just sat there and stared for a moment and then shuddered in his intakes, "Ooh, scary thought." He took a sip of his energon again then said, "Hey I wonder where TC went?"

Megatron's Office.

"If Starscream is right about the information he obtained from the femme, then perhaps we could use her as bait in order to bring Reignfire out of hiding. It's obvious that if he has been here on Earth for this long and not returned to us then he is a traitor and I want to deal with him myself, as are all the other soldiers who were with him if they are still functional. Reignfire used to be one of my most loyal soldiers and his desertion will be dealt with accordingly."

"As you wish Sir." Soundwave meekly replied.

"Now tell me more about the femme since you reported to me last."

"Her growth patterns are continuing exponentially. The more energon she is being fed the more her changes are occurring. She does not seem to be exhibiting any power that we observed of the male previously."

"So you're saying that if we deliberately overcharge her she will be a fully grown adult mechanoid more quickly than waiting for the changes to occur at their own pace?" Megatron asked.

"Affirmative." Came the monotonous reply.

"Considering the damage I just observed in corridor B-7, I believe she may be hiding any power she has already." Megatron thought for a moment. "And while I do not freely invite the prospect of having an adult femme loose on this base to distract my other soldiers, the power levels that she is beginning to show may very well be a worthwhile prize in the end."

Megatron got out of his Command chair and walked around it with one hand to his chin. "Perhaps we can give her some form of test to make her use these powers she's hiding. Considering she just fought with your cassette twins, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to oblige by fighting her again to get payback."

"Go and retrieve the twins from the rec room and bring them and yourself to the combat room, I will retrieve the femme from your lab, if she has actually arrived there this time."

"Understood."

Soundwave's Lab.

When Violet arrived back at the lab, she had passed Soundwave on his way out and the Comms. Officer had given her a curious look before continuing on his way somewhere. She was grateful she would have the place to herself at least. Or so she thought. Ravage was curled up, quietly recharging in one corner.

She wondered to herself how exactly she had gotten out of that one. Here she was, fighting with two of Megatron's soldiers and she was caught doing it red handed by their Commander and all he did was send her back here. There had to be something else to it?

She was in the middle of washing her faceplate when another person walked into the lab.

She turned around to see that it wasn't Megatron or Soundwave, but in fact that blue Seeker she often saw with Starscream or the purple one, one that had been watching the fight.

Thundercracker watched her as she dried off her faceplate with a cleaning cloth close by and wandered across to a bench with a toolbox on it.

"What do you want?" She queried to him. "Megatron send you to babysit his toy?"

The Seeker ignored her cynical remarks and instead asked his own questions. "How did you learn to fight like that?"

"I was taught to fight like that. Why are you so interested?"

"Well that's not the first time those two have intentionally fought with you, why haven't you shown your skills till now?"

She ignored his question and answered with her own. "Why are you even here bothering me anyway? Don't you like have some Seeker's club meeting to go to or something, with that ugly red and white mech and the purple one, what's-his-name, Sky-something?"

"They are called Starscream and Skywarp, respectively." Thundercracker said, "And I just came here because I was curious about you, that's all. Megatron didn't send me to watch you."

"You're asking too many questions." She replied angrily.

"I don't know why you are being so defensive about it, besides it's not like I'm trying to pick a fight with you, I just want some answers?"

"In that case Thundercracker, you can pick a fight with her to test her skills yourself along with the cassette twins in the combat room."

Neither of them had heard Megatron walk in.

"You can bring the femme with you and we will see just how good a fighter she really is if you're that curious to know."

As soon as the hulking grey mech was out of the room, Violet swore to herself. She had hit the walls a few times and must have dented it enough for Megatron to notice. Damn. How was she going to get out of this one?


	15. Chapter 15

*Part 15*

Optimus had to admit that this was by far the weirdest dream he had experienced of late.

Ever since this shadowy femme had shown up along with other previously thought terminated individuals, things had gotten a little weird, even for him.

He wasn't the only one that had noticed this though; several of his soldiers had reported feeling a certain sense of weirdness since she first turned up dead in their Medical bay. It was like a proverbial shadow had now come upon the Ark and its residents as a result and he wanted to know why.

This was why he was here now, traversing the dream state with the help of the Matrix, to find the answers he was looking for. But night after night of trying he had only come back online even more confused then he went offline to recharge.

It was strange enough about that femme's ability to bring herself back from the dead, that episode had not yet been explained, and he wanted answers. Jazz had been monitoring that situation for him by trying to get close to the femme. But it was not easy, nor was getting the information they were after.

This time his consciousness had been taken to observe a meeting of sorts, while he knew he wasn't here physically he could observe the group talking from one side of the room that they were all in.

He noticed that a transformer with a blue hue and a glow about him was the obvious leader of the discussion at the table, and the others were all either agreeing or discussing things he had to say. He was somehow drawn to this one but the mech's kind face was someone he did not recognise.

"And how goes your efforts Valorean?" The blue Transformer asked a bronze and white individual on the other side of the table.

"Average. There has been a slight reconnection of sorts on their level, but we have yet to yield any results." The white individual replied. Optimus had to admit to himself that this person somehow reminded him of Prowl, especially with the dry, straight to the point, statistical reply. But neither the voice nor the face was familiar to him.

He turned his attention to the open doorway where two individuals waltzed in. One was adorned in a black, silver and gold paintjob, with a shine that would have put Sunstreaker to shame, and the other was a reddish orange colour and was rather scrappy looking that reminded him very much of Ironhide.

At that thought he decided to look at everyone who was present to see just if any others reminded him of his comrades or enemies.

There were a few he couldn't match to anyone but two individuals down one end of the table were reminiscent of both himself and also Megatron. It was then he started to wonder exactly what kind of dream this was intended to be and why the Matrix was showing him this. What exactly was it pertaining to?

When he came back to his corner again he was startled when the blue individual looked straight at his location and smiled. This confused him.

Then he felt a hand upon him.

Even though he knew he was nothing more than that of a bodiless spark here, he still felt that whatever touched him was real, as though it was everything else around him that were the ghosts.

He was surprised to find an old friend standing there smiling at him when he turned around. An old friend whom he thought had returned to the Matrix many cycles ago.

The moment he turned around though, the room behind him disappeared and they were moved to a room with a somewhat starry background, everywhere the walls were, some form of shiny black metal reflecting the cosmic holograms behind it.

"What was that all about back there?" Optimus asked.

"You will discover in due time." Came the reply.

Optimus had to admit that he was glad to see his old friend, Alpha Trion. It had been a very long time since the two had last laid optics on each other.

"If you won't tell me what that was about, then can you tell me where we are right now?" He asked.

"We are somewhere else, then I am going to be sending you home." Alpha Trion paused then elaborated, realising his younger friend wanted more information than what he had told him. "As for what that was back there, the Matrix saw fit to show you something you may find important at some later stage. At the moment you do not need to know who those individuals are, only know that you were given a privilege to observe their business."

But it wasn't everything Optimus wanted to hear, so he asked more questions. "And what about you? How did you get here?"

Alpha Trion showed his mirth, "You forget that I was once a Prime myself and so still have the knowledge of how to traverse the Cyberspace, the pathways linking our minds to those of the entire Cybertronian race through primus and his light. As a result I can take my mind anywhere I please, even to retrieve you from here if necessary."

Optimus didn't know much about the Cyberspace ways. He only knew that it was similar to what the humans called the astral realms in their own cultural beliefs. He had not had much chance to use his capabilities of accessing it since becoming a Prime, due to the war needing his attention. But due to his needing information of late, the Matrix had seen fit to appease him with nightly sojourns in an effort to get what he needed, however the confusion was annoying and didn't help any.

What little he knew of the Cyberspace ways was from his knowledge of Cybertronian history.

He knew that the old Knights of the Golden Ages, called Archeons, often traversed it, and that it was a normal way of life back in those times. Nowadays, as far as he knew it was a privilege that only Primes and a select few talented individuals could attain.

Optimus lowered his head to look at the glassy floor that was reflecting space and it intrigued him. "Does this experience have anything to do with that mysterious tall black femme that showed up recently?"

"Perhaps, perhaps not." Came the mused reply.

"Well I have felt somewhat strange whenever she gets close to the Matrix and myself. Its energy feels invigorated and recharged somehow, but not in a relatively good, way, perhaps something a little darker, more chaotic."

Alpha Trion was not facing him directly as he was still walking forward ahead of him with Optimus close behind him. He stopped and turned to his younger friend and smiled, "Well that certainly is an interesting development now isn't it!" He said as he put an arm behind him and pushed a button that was situated on the wall.

A door opened to a glow and Optimus shielded his optics to protect them from the intense light coming forward.

Alpha Trion stated, "The truth behind that feeling of yours is something you will have to find the answer to in your own time." The older mech paused and turned towards the open door. Optimus could see that the scene being shown now was his room in semi darkness, where his body was currently residing in a recharge cycle. "Once you walk through this door, you will be back in your body again. I must insist you resist the urge the come along to that meeting place again unless you are invited, it is not somewhere you need to be just yet."

"But why?" He asked in return.

"You will discover that knowledge for yourself in time also. But for now off you go."

Alpha Trion gave him a hefty shove that moved him through the door and made him wake with a sudden start upon his recharge slab, so sudden in fact; it was enough for him to lurch off the side and onto the floor.

As he waited for his optics and some other systems to come online again, he sat up and wondered about the experiences and information obtained during his cyberspace walk. Alpha Trion hadn't exactly been straight with him and it left him very confused about the whole experience as to what it all meant.

Right now he was of a mind to go down to Smokescreen's office and see if he was still there, intent on having a private audience with their resident Psychologist about his experiences again.

He however was not to get that opportunity as the warning claxon started to sound, rousing most of the bases residents from recharge in response to Decepticons at large and an SOS received from a power plant somewhere in Oregon State.

Violet had no choice but to continue listening to the jibes of the Conehead Seekers who were currently giving her a hard time as she was helping some of the others to load Astrotrain.

Since her experience in the combat room, Megatron had decided she would be better utilised to assist them with retrieving Energon. And so she was given to be watched over by Soundwave while they carried out their raid.

That left one more soldier Megatron could use if the Autobots showed up for a fight. And if all else failed he could use the femme as a shield to help them get away if needed.

"You three stop your moaning and get back to watching out for the Autobots." Megatron ordered.

Dirge and Thrust grumbled but eventually got back to what they were supposed to be doing, but Ramjet didn't listen and instead deliberately kicked Violet halfway across the room spilling the energon cubes she had been carrying to Astrotrain's hold and covering her and the floor in the substance as a result.

As she was trying to get up, Ramjet came over and put one ped on her back, preventing her from getting up and decided to taunt her more, "Now look at what you've done you pathetic wretch, you've spilled our precious energon. I should fry you on the spot for your clumsiness." And he cocked his guns at her ready to fire.

"I saw what you did Ramjet." Thundercracker stated. "You should be mindful of what you were ordered to do by Megatron instead of spilling all that energon by knocking the femme over."

Ramjet, always itching to start a fight, got right up in Thundercracker's faceplate and told him off, "And just what are you going to do about it, freak lover?" Crunching his knuckle gears.

Thundercracker however didn't get a chance to say anything as Starscream yelled, "Get into position Ramjet, the Autobots are here."

Ramjet glared at Starscream for a few clicks before turning to Thundercracker to do the same, and then he went back to his defensive post ready to shoot down the enemy as they approached.

Thundercracker readied his own weapon for the oncoming Autobot arrival, but before he stepped into his place, he put Violet on her feet and told her to get out of the way somewhere. "You have no weapon, so you are no good to us. Get out of the way, stay there and don't interfere."

This gesture somewhat confused Violet. For a Decepticon, this one was turning out like someone who would be better off serving on the side of the Autobots rather than where he was now. The note of genuine concern in his vocals was not something she was used to from any Decepticon. Even though she didn't need to listen to Thundercracker's orders, she did so anyway, only because he was right. Without a weapon, she would just be in the way and being that the Autobots didn't know what she looked like at present, she would just be another Seeker looking target in the flurry of battle.

She found a place where she could sit aside from the battle and tried to get rid of the rest of the Energon that was dripping off of her. She hoped she would get to stay out of the way, but figured she wouldn't be there for much longer if she was ordered to assist any other soldiers by Soundwave or Megatron.

Her considerable size shift in the last two weeks due to the high grade she had filched from Starscream previously, had kicked her system into a higher gear and she was now just at shoulder strut height to the Seekers.

But it still didn't stop any one of them from randomly harassing her or treating her with a lack of respect, calling her freak or other names meant to devalue her. If she stayed around them any longer, it was only a matter of time before she got a blade or a weapon in some sensitive area that would end her life. And all she wanted was to go home to her family and friends and return to her life as a science student at the local University.

She was glad at least she wasn't asked to fight alongside her captors. Thankful they weren't as faithful or knowledgeable of her capabilities as she was. She knew how to shoot and use a variety of weapons, but wasn't keen on using that knowledge against the Autobots.

"She's back here." She heard someone call.

She turned to her side only to groan at who it was. "What do you want tiny?" She said with a smart attitude.

"Shut it you or I might go fist t'fist with ya again." Rumble stated. All Violet could do was be slightly amused by the Cassette. Both Rumble and his brother had been more lenient on her since that day in the combat room, both finally admitting they were no match for her. And she had since been more accommodating to them, treating them like little brothers in private. Yet they still went off at each other in public to make everything look like normal.

"What does Soundwave want?" She asked openly, knowing it was too much of a coincidence that one of the Cassettes came to find her.

Out of thin air she heard him speak, "New orders. Shoot the Autobots." Was all he said as he handed her a gun from one of their fallen comrades and expected her to follow orders. Considering what she was just thinking, she chided herself for not putting up her mental shields, perhaps Soundwave had heard her thoughts. She knew he was a telepath and had often wondered just how much her mind was being read when she wasn't focusing on blocking him out like she usually did.

She had no choice but to follow his directions due to the fact they had replaced the old collar with a new one that would accommodate her growth. She was still at the mercy of doing whatever Soundwave or Megatron told her to do. She didn't want to, still not having found a way to disable that new collar and found it rather distasteful she was being told to shoot upon the Autobots.

She settled into her spot and found it was a perfect place for a snipers hideout. She took aim at whoever she could set in her sights and fired, downing several Autobots and regretting every moment of it.

Violet also realised that she was being used as cover to allow Astrotrain to escape with the booty of their raid she had been made to help pack.

Thundercracker had also been sent to retrieve the femme so she could be utilised at another possible raid, seeing as how this test had worked out. But he never made it to her.

In the background, she heard Megatron give the call to take off and return back to base. She also saw Thundercracker make a grab for her but too many things happened at once. Starscream was still on the ground fighting and he was shot at from somewhere she couldn't see, causing the energon cubes left behind to explode. Her position then became compromised and she made a run for it.

All the time she had been shooting, she was being watched by the Autobots own sniper Bluestreak, who finally had his shot and so, took aim on her. He didn't know that she was just another innocent bystander in all this, as far as he knew, the female that the Decepticons had in their possession was human, not a smaller version of one of the Seekers and so didn't distinguish her from the other Decepticons.

But his aim for once was off. At the last click, Violet turned to face the retreating 'Cons, glad that something was happening to separate them from her. She moved slightly after Bluestreak had taken the shot. Only her collar was hit and enough damage was done for her to feel the sudden ease of pressure from the control on her free will. The sudden shock of her being free caused her to hesitate to take cover and she felt a jarring pain in her back before she went numb and collapsed.

"Now it wasn't so bad was it?" Someone asked her. All she could do was huff. "Fine. Keep ignoring me. I did tell you that you might be there for a bit till you'd be back with us again."

That comment got her, "Yeah but that was after they captured me. And just what were you going to do if they wanted to induct me; it wasn't like I would have any choice being a prisoner on their base and all."

Shadow smiled. "I don't know what you're so worried about. You're here now, you're in one piece and your system has no permanent damage to it. You should be grateful that we were given the opportunity to retrieve you."

Violet ground her dental plates. Her Aunt was right, like usual. Her imprisonment had allowed her gruffness to increase somewhat. It had only been a day or two since she was back with family and friends again, and she was finding it hard to get herself back to normal. But after spending some time with the Decepticons, she was rather defensive and admittedly needed some time to settle down.

She had recalled that first few days after the fight test were very exhausting and degrading. She had fought the twins and had been stuck fighting Thundercracker. But in the middle of the fight with the blue Seeker, she had slipped up and used her special abilities, teleporting out of harms way to avoid getting hit by a blow she couldn't have avoided otherwise.

She had then been grabbed and held before Megatron while a new collar was placed around her neck. Apparently they had made another just in case they needed to use it, and she became its new owner. It had been different than the former one, it didn't suppress her powers, but it did control her actions, just like her wristbands had done.

Ratchet walked into the Medical bay and distracted her from her reverie and started going over some medical readings with a handheld device while she was lying down on her table.

She had been at the Autobot Ark since she had been rescued, not that she minded, it was better than being on the Decepticon base. However there were a few people in the Medical bay who were ones she had shot at and downed herself and they probably wouldn't be too happy when they came online again knowing she was here amongst them.

Ratchet noticed her looking over at those ones and said, "Don't worry, they'll all be fine." He paused while looking at his medical device then added, "Though you seem to be quite a good shot and you've given me and my crew some extra work to do for a few days."

She sheepishly grinned and got up, rubbing the back of her helm.

"And so she should be a good shot, considering it was me who taught her to aim in the first place." Shadow remarked.

Ratchet had not seen her in the room when he had entered, being that he had seen an empty chair near Violet's table but had thought nothing of it, and so turned around startled at the sudden chatter as well as her appearance there in the chair. "What the…?"

"Greetings and salutations!" Shadow barely moved in time to have a spanner thrown at her, where she had been sitting just a moment before, the spanner hit the wall behind where her head casing had just been. She grinned at Ratchet then looked at Violet. "I'll see you later, I'm off to find Van' or Rusty." And then she morphed into the nearest shadow on the wall.

Violet rolled her optics; she knew that Shadow was only trying to be amusing. Her Aunt was just in that kind of mood today and it had been rather daunting considering she wasn't.

Once Ratchet was convinced Shadow was gone, he turned to Violet and stated, "You young femme are better than fine and I'm letting you go, but you had better get yourself over to Prowl's office while you are here. He happens to want you to fill out a report for our records about the Decepticon base."

She promptly got herself off the table she had been on and made to walk out the door. As soon as she had realised she didn't know where Prowl's office was or even who Prowl was, she turned around to ask Ratchet, but by then he was already yelling at a couple of other patients who weren't doing what they were told. She decided she may as well make her own way and ask someone when she had the chance to.

She had never been in the Autobot's base before and wondered why her Aunt had let her stay here instead of taking care of her elsewhere. Not that she would have fit into the Deane Mansion anymore; she was too big now for any human habitations. She figured her being here was for the best for now and let it be at that.

While she spent the time wandering down several hallways, she became very aware of the stares she was getting from other passers by. She could have asked any one of them to tell her where Prowl's office was but the fact they stared at her creeped her out and she just kept walking.

She was being gawked at more for curiosity here in the Ark rather than for disdain and disgust as she was on the Decepticon base. She wasn't really surprised though, as she had been confined to their Medical bay since she was brought in offline. That and a female in the shape of a Seeker was weird for them, they only left her alone due to the fact she had no insignia on her and Vanguard, the moment the white femme had heard she was here, had adamantly insisted she was no threat and sought to stay until Violet was fine to take home.

She had been so engrossed in her thoughts that she hadn't heard someone sidle up to her. "Hi!" Came the enthusiastic vocals. She was startled to the point of almost walking right into the side wall. This was the first mech that had had the audacity to not just stare blankly and actually say something to her. "Sorry about shooting you back at the power plant, only I didn't know you weren't a Decepticon, being that you look like one, that is, you look like a Seeker only that you're female and…" The grey Datsun stopped when she looked at him sourly, but then put out his hand in greeting anyway, "What's your name? I'm Bluestreak." He said in a very friendly manner.

She wasn't right up to being nice again so soon, but she figured this one meant no harm by saying hello, but at least she now knew who had taken care of the collar. She replied curtly, "Violet." She figured she would have to keep an optic or two on this one if he was that good a shot to down her.

"You look like you need help with something, can I help you with something 'cause I'm real good at helping people and can show you anywhere around the base you need to go and…"

Violet raised a brow at this one and snorted. He reminded her of Casey. She talked a lot like this. Despite the fact the constant chatter of one of her study buddies, drove her bonkers, she was used to it in a way, but she was always telling Casey to shut up and she was very close to telling Bluestreak to do the same.

But she sighed and just kept walking. If this one were to tell her where she needed to go, she knew he would come along and drive her to grate her dental plates even more from the chatter he was so aimlessly letting out of his vocalisers.

"Hey there Violet!" Called Jazz from down the hall. This one she knew. He had introduced himself the first day she was in the Medical bay being that he was placed next to her at first.

' _Thank God!'_ She thought to herself.

Bluestreak hadn't taken it personally that she didn't return shaking his hand, or walked away from him rudely. But in the short space of time from where she started walking again and where she ran into Jazz, Bluestreak hadn't stopped talking and followed her to stand next to both of them.

Jazz was always quick to pick up on things and noticed that Bluestreak's talking was annoying Violet. He'd already surmised that she was the peace and quiet, 'just leave me alone' type. "S'okay Blue' I'll give Vi' a hand with where or whatever she needs 'k!"

"Ok." Bluestreak, looking rather dejected, quietly meandered off down the hall till he found someone else to talk to.

Jazz thought for a moment about how Hound would get out of his conversation with a lonely Bluestreak and grinned to himself, but then turned his attention to the small femme. "So where you need t'go li'l lady?" He asked.

"I need to find someone called Prowl for a…a report or something. At least that's what Ratchet seems to think I need to be doing."

Jazz chuckled and said, "Well I don' know 'bout that, but I'm headin' down to th'combat area for practice. Wanna come?"

Violet shrugged. "Sure why not, beats having to sit down and think for a while." Usually she would be very eager to be doing monotonous paperwork; after all she did them all the time with her science reports for her studies, but at the moment she just wanted to unwind. She'd already taken a liking to Jazz in the short time she had known him and so didn't mind his company or his conversation; he was just so easy going and friendly, so she just wrapped her arm around his and followed him.

Later.

Violet had found where her Aunt had disappeared to. She'd found Vanguard and Rusty taking advantage of the Autobots hospitality while they were all here waiting for Violet to recover. They'd come back to the Ark today despite the fact Shadow had been there all night keeping her company in private, and both decided to make use of their waiting time while here, Rusty had just come along to hang out at the Autobots base like she usually did.

Meanwhile Violet was sitting aside with Shadow watching the others train. Jazz was also with them, waiting for his turn for the training game that was going. All three were engaged in conversation, but it was stopped short when Prowl walked in, looking for Violet. He had decided to join them after finding out from someone where the femme now was. He had a datapad in hand hoping that Violet would fill in a report on her stay at the Decepticon base.

He came over to the ones sitting alongside the fighting ring and asked the young femme if she would elaborate on her time with the Decepticons to see if there was any information the Autobots could use in their fight with them.

Violet looked from Prowl to Shadow wondering whether she should bother, but her Aunt just shrugged knowing her niece was waiting for her to say no so she wouldn't have to do it. She grimaced when she got no verbal response and so just took the datapad from Prowl's outstretched hand and started typing away.

She made notes about everything up to the day in the training room and everything after, right till the point she had been recaptured by the Autobots during a response to a Decepticon raid in western Oregon.

At that point upon discovering her newest capabilities, Megatron had not been content to allow her to continue taking up space somewhat uselessly on the underwater base and so made use of her in other ways, that's how she had come to be with the Decepticons on their raid. Megatron had fully intended on retrieving her if not for the folly of Starscream's actions and the femme being taken by the Autobots instead of returning with the Decepticons to their base.

That had been at least one day ago and now she was here.

Violet had to admit to herself she was glad she was away from them and their manipulative ways and back in the safety of relative company again. When she was done, including everything she thought was relevant, she cordially handed the datapad over to Prowl.

He quietly skimmed over her report noticing it was a bit short than it could have been. Violet had omitted most of the parts that involved her Aunt contacting her for a good reason. "Hmm, that should be all, but if we have anything else we want a more in depth explanation of, we will follow up on it later. For now this will do."

Prowl and Violet had been so engrossed in mulling over the report that they had neglected to notice that something was just starting. Violet turned around to notice that all the seats next to her were empty, with others near the combat ring.

At the moment, Vanguard and Shadow were standing and in each others faceplates arguing, about her it seemed. They went back and forth for some time before things got more heated.

"She wouldn't have had to go through any of that if you'd have just done the right thing and rescued her to begin with. But no. You had to carry on with high and mighty slag that everything has its place and time and function and that she would be fine and dandy if we just left her with the 'Cons. Who knows what kind of psychological damage it's caused her being exposed to them?" Vanguard argued.

"That's all you have to say?" Shadow asked. She knew it was just Vanguards overprotective maternal nature venting itself upon her.

Vanguard was venting from raising her vocals. It had been a long time since she had told off Shadow. Friend or not, she believed she was in the right.

She however didn't respond, instead she laid into Shadow with a lightning fast punch to the other femme's jaw plate. The tensile pressure of the punch was so great that a loud crack was heard from the splitting of the broken jawplate.

"Ouch, that's gotta hurt!" Rusty remarked grimacing from the impact.

Vanguard knew that she had made a mistake as soon as she had done it. They had both had their fair share of disagreements in the past, but it had been a long time coming since the last one, especially since Vanguard usually kept her temper under control and her hands to herself. This time she didn't, her temper about the situation with Violet had been building up for some time and it needed release.

She didn't even have time to defend herself however. As Shadow was recovering from the blow, she already had her extendable cables out and sliced off Vanguard's arm just above her wrist gears, the one she had used to hit Shadow with. Vanguard was clutching her severed limb, and if not for the fact the white hot blade had cauterised the wound, she guessed it could have been worse. Shadow could have done much more damage than a simple retributive hand removal, as she knew what the femme could be capable of when she was really angry. This was just a simple warning to keep her hands to herself.

Prowl made a move to go to Vanguard's aid, as did several others, but more of Shadow's extending blade cables stopped them.

Shadow just slid her jaw plate back into place and let her nano healing capabilities perform their function. She tested her jaw before she finally spoke, "You done now?"

Vanguard grunted and didn't respond. Shadow looked right back at her and then went to go and pick up the severed hand. Vanguard stood by calmly trying not to let the pain of the severed hand get to her, watching as Shadow reattached it.

Someone had gone and retrieved Ratchet in the meantime, only to have him come barrelling in fuming before Shadow could reattach the hand. He tried to push her aside but she stopped him. When she was done she looked around at the CMO and the rest looking aghast and said, "What? You lot all look like you've never seen a hand reattached before." What Shadow had done was not only reattach the hand in an unorthodox manner but she had rejoined the molecular structure of the two, as if the hand and the arm had never been sliced apart to begin with. No one had ever seen it done before.

Shadow finally let herself be moved by Ratchet so he could examine the arm and he noticed that there wasn't a scratch. He turned around and looked at Shadow and queried, "How?"

Shadow of course, being who she was, just smirked, "That's my secret." She then turned to Violet and said, "Hey kid, how would you like to stay here permanently, I'm sure the Autobots could use an extra Gunner or uh, set of wings?"

Violet just stood there with one brow raised at the audacity her Aunt had to even suggest this.

Rusty looked from her to Shadow and replied, "Well hey if she won't then I'll take that offer?" Shadow scowled at Rusty, knowing the femme owed her a lot already and knowing Rusty was using it as an excuse to get out of that.

Vanguard growled, "I can't believe you would be so callous to put her through one drama only to drag her into another?"

Violet spoke up, "It's alright Vanguard," Grateful that she had one person who openly showed some concern for her over her previous situation. But she knew the kinds of games her Aunt played and had to wonder what she was up to now. "I think I may just take her up on that offer," She looked at the other Autobots present. "If they'll have me that is?"


	16. Chapter 16

*Part 16*

Prowl had been up late last night and so didn't get as much of a good recharge as he expected he would. He had been trying to cycle down and slip into recharge if not for the fact he was still thinking about the pro's and con's of the femme, Violet, and her request to join the Autobots upon Shadow's suggestion.

He was grateful that he was doing the afternoon shift in the Monitor room with a couple of other officers. It would give them more time to talk about the situation. And being that Red Alert was one of the outgoing morning shift personnel, the Security Director would stay with them and also talk about the upcoming meeting to consider any inductions.

At the moment, Optimus Prime would have ordinarily called a meeting in to discuss the matter, but he, along with some others had travelled to Cybertron to attend to some matters along with Skylynx for transport.

When Prowl entered the monitor room he was surprised to find that more than one of the officers he was to work with were present.

Ratchet had joined them from the Medical bay, having no current patients to deal with and leaving the care of his office to First Aid while he was here. Trailbreaker and Blaster were on duty in the room along with himself. Red Alert was still present. And Perceptor was also here.

And Smokescreen just walks casually into the room, "Am I late?"

Ordinarily, Jazz, Wheeljack and Ironhide would have joined them, but they were with Optimus on Cybertron along with a few others.

"It appears that you are just on time." Prowl responded. "It seems that most of the Officers are here. But why meet here while Trailbreaker, Blaster and I are on Monitor duty?"

"Seems a good a place as any?" Blaster commented.

Prowl scrutinised, "So I take it we have you to thank for putting the word out about our intended conversation?"

Blaster shrugged and smiled.

Ratchet added, "Meeting in here is no different than the war room. Besides we may as well take advantage of the lull in fighting and the fact we all have the time to come in and talk at the moment, even if it is only a small time frame."

Smokescreen had already found himself a chair to sit on albeit backwards, "So why don't we get started?"

"You all realise we will have to put forward any concerns again when Optimus Prime returns in a few days?"

Ratchet answered, "We may as well get most of our thoughts out of the way right now. Clear the air so to speak."

"Yeah makes for a shorter meetin' then, don't it!" Blaster grinned.

Smokescreen snickered, "Well he does have a point there!"

Prowl grimaced at the humour, "Well, who wants to put forward their thoughts on the matter?"

"I don't trust her," Red Alert blurted out, "How do we know that she isn't some Decepticon spy sent here to infiltrate our ranks to gain our trust and betray us?"

"Again with the paranoia!" Ratchet sighs.

"He has a valid point Ratchet." Prowl mentions, and Red Alert smiles.

"She seems ok t'me, but then I haven't been pickin' up anythin' from her since she came in a week ago." Blaster added, "If she's been callin th'Cons then she ain't been doin' it with our stuff? An' I haven' picked up any extra transmissions either."

"Personally," Smokescreen added, "After a preliminary evaluation, she seems normal, albeit a little dark and macabre, but fine. She's a little out of sorts at the moment but considering what she's been through, I wouldn't blame her…"

Perceptor interjected, "My own preliminary analysis indicates she is of sound neurological and physiological status. She has calmed down somewhat since first arriving here." He got a look from Smokescreen and realised. "I beg your pardon Smokescreen, in my alacrity; I fear I may have interrupted your own explanation! My sincerest apologies."

"S'ok, no harm done." Smokescreen stated languidly.

Prowl had noticed that Trailbreaker had been quiet until now. "And what do you think about all this Trailbreaker?" He asked.

"Well…" That had put him on the spot. He hadn't really been listening to the conversation as Prowl and Blaster had been but he wasn't the type to focus on more than one thing at once as he had been doing his job watching the monitors, and so had missed most of the talk about Violet. "Even though my sister has been away from us for a long time, I still trust her judgement about the kid. If Vanguard says she's ok then she's ok. Besides she seems fine to me, a little testy but still ok."

Elsewhere on the base.

"So Cliffjumper, what do you think about this new femme we might be getting to join?"

"Bad idea if ya ask me." He replied dryly, remembering the fact he was one of the Autobots that Violet had gunned down during the battle with the 'Cons.

Windcharger started to laugh slightly, "Still a little sore about that huh? Well she got me too you know. She must be a real good shot if she can line me up, being as agile as I am and all! Might be good to get that skill and turn it back at the 'Cons."

All Cliffjumper could do was grimace and grind his dental plates. As much as some of his comrades were open to accepting a new member of their team, he wasn't especially since she had been with the 'Cons on their base for over a month. He had taken Red Alert's side when it was initially discussed amongst everyone before Prime left, but he wasn't going to trust her and may very well be a spy for the 'Cons.

Monitor room.

"And is your sister still here Trailbreaker?" Prowl asked.

He nodded, "I think she said she was going to ask Silverbolt to allow Violet to train with the Aerialbots this afternoon and test her mettle against their aerial skills."

Without asking, Red Alert leant over the big black mech and started typing in some numbers to the keyboard, bringing up the western view outside the Ark. He zoomed in with the cameras and was just able to get an image of the Aerialbots, with the black femme zooming around with them. He readjusted the cameras and found the white form of Vanguard, on the ground, sitting and watching the aerial manoeuvres above.

He brought up all the camera angles on all the screens and said, "There they are." Red Alert was a little smug at his effort, although Trailbreaker was competent at the monitoring job; he wasn't as fast or efficient at using the system that Red Alert had redesigned himself upon his first tenure at the Ark all those years ago.

Outside.

Vanguard had been watching the Aerialbots and Violet speed around the sky for the last hour or so.

She had nominated herself Violet's unofficial guardian while she was here at the Ark, knowing that Shadow had left soon after she had asked Violet to think about joining the Autobots and hadn't been heard from since. _'Probably off on one of her jaunts,'_ Vanguard figured.

She had convinced Optimus Prime to allow Violet to stay for a short while with them until it was decided if she would stay for good or not. Vanguard herself was allowed to stay with the femme also until a decision was made, being that she insisted on staying to watch over her, with Trailbreaker's help though.

The faith her brother had in her was still the same over all the years they had been apart as well as all the time she had been away from the Autobots and she had to silently commend her brother for helping to convince his Commander to allow her on the base, despite the fact she was only there in a caretaker capacity to watch over Violet.

Trailbreaker had given up trying to convince Vanguard to also consider rejoining. He argued that her place was with the Autobot forces, right where it used to be. And she argued back she would only be there for Violet, and would leave peaceably if the offer to join was declined or she failed her initiation test which would prove if she could cope with the day to day duties and activities that the other mechs were often subjected to against the Decepticons.

She disagreed with Shadow over giving Violet the idea in the first place, but Violet had decided to go ahead with it herself and so she respected that choice.

At the moment she looked up and saw Slingshot trying to outfly Violet and she grinned. That was one thing she had to give Shadow. She had certainly run the femme through her paces when she was younger. All Violet had wanted to do was immerse herself in her scientific studies, but Shadow often took her out on jaunts to train her in various things or even send her on weird treks, like something of an undercover agent.

Violet just took everything in her stride, while she always came back irritated, that was only due to her being taken away from her studies and she was fine as soon as she immersed herself in them again.

Vanguard had noticed she had already settled even after over a month in the company of the Autobot's enemies. She had vastly underestimated the femme's ability to recover, something she usually didn't do, but she hadn't exactly been herself lately, distracted by her thoughts and feelings about Shadow.

But as it was, Violet was retaining more of her crankcase demeanour than usual. Vanguard had skirted around the femme's thoughts and saw that it was her inability to return to her normal human size and return to her studies that was the cause of this continued irritation.

She supposed Shadow had orchestrated the femme's return and dropped the idea of her joining the Autobots on purpose as she thought Violet wasn't yet ready to be introduced to their secret connections as yet. She figured she was always too interested in burying her nose in books to even take any notice of all the strange things that used to happen around Deane Mansion. But Vanguard knew that the femme was more astute than ignorant and would have just not bothered to notice anything that did not involve her scientific studies at the time.

For now she just hoped that Violet could learn to contend with her new form and surroundings until she was given a bone to sink her teeth into.

Violet had learnt to cope with the fact she wouldn't be human sized again and sorely missed her books and studies. All she had access to was the internet at times and even then, she wasn't permitted access to any of the Autobots communications and information gathering devices while she was on their base.

She couldn't blame them, considering the time she had spent with their enemy as well as the fact she was an unknown entity to them. For all they knew, she was planted in their company by the Decep's as some infiltration plan.

At the moment she was facing an uncertain future ahead of her.

At least it was one that didn't involve the company of the Decepticons. And that fact alone she was glad, glad to be rid of their company that had become very stifled. She however had some regrets. She knew now that Megatron had deliberately planned the events in the combat room. Being that she was not all that familiar with how he worked and was practically winging her attendance there as a prisoner on behalf of her Aunt's instructions, she had underestimated him and he had backed her into a corner to get her to reveal the powers he had realised she was deliberately hiding from him.

Though Violet was glad of all the martial arts training she had been given while she was human. Those skills had saved her for now, but if she had stayed any longer with them, she doubted they would have helped to save her from any of them.

At the moment though, she was trying to put those thoughts out of her head and engross herself in flying. It was all she had right now and she was glad she had been given countless hours of pilot lessons, both in the sky as well as in simulators, to familiarise herself with aeroplanes.

The simulators weren't the same as the real thing though. All her defensive combat training had been in the simulators. All the plane flying she had done had been in old combat planes that Francine often used at the studio for stunt scenes where she often provided work as a pilot when it was needed.

She missed that life already. Her own happy little secure life that she had known would be there for some time. Being Cybertronian sized was an unknown to her and she had allowed her Aunt to tutor her in every field imaginable in order to scrape off some of the fear and trepidation she had felt for years leading up to her change, one that she knew would eventually come, but hadn't been looking forward to. She had willingly allowed herself to be sent on missions, to be involved in dangerous aerial stunt work, to know everything she could know about every scientific endeavour possible in order to prepare her for it, but she always felt it was never enough at times.

But it hadn't helped out much at all. She missed being somewhat human. She missed her friends. Even Casey and her constant chatter. Even her grandfather and twin brother, wondering what they were all doing right at this moment.

While she couldn't go back to being human for now, she threw her gusto for being in the air into her current aerial manoeuvrability skills.

' _I don't like admitting it, but this femme is just too good for me.'_ Slingshot exclaimed over the radio.

Air Raid who had been bringing up the rear mocked in jest over his own radio, _'I'm sorry, could you repeat that, I want to record it for prosperity!'_

' _Shove it up your afterburners 'Raid.'_ Slingshot retorted nastily.

While the warrior flew off after the femme to have his turn, Slingshot flew off towards Silverbolt and transformed next to their group leader.

"It's not like you to give up so easily Slingshot." Silverbolt commented as he watched Air Raid trying to follow the femme in every turn and bank she performed with ease.

"Yeah well I've been off my game since Sky' disappeared." The VTOL Jet murmured quietly.

Silverbolt was sympathetic to his aerial brother and team mate. Everyone was worried about Skydive. He had been gone for over a month now. And while Optimus Prime had assured them that everything was being done to find the missing Aerialbot, it didn't convince the team very well.

' _We all miss him Slingshot.'_ Silverbolt thought to himself.

The other jet wouldn't openly admit it, but he grimaced and said, "Even if it was me or 'Flight that was missing, we could still try and form Superion with one arm, but no, it had to be Skydive. Who just happens to be a leg, and that's no use to us in the middle of the fight. What good is a one legged Combiner?"

Silverbolt knew it was just his way of covering up his concern so he let him vent in his own way. Their leader turned his attention to Fireflight who had actually been watching the femme and her flying rather intently. It was more attention than he had ever seen the red jet ever give something for as long as he had been an Autobot.

"Fireflight." He called the Recon jet over.

"Oh hey." Was the sombre response and the red jet glided right over next to his leader. "She's really good. I wish I had that kind of focus."

"You could if you bothered to pay attention when you're flying, 'Flight." Slingshot remarked sarcastically.

The quiet red jet hung his head embarrassed, knowing his lack of focus usually led to others being at risk when he was flying due to the fact he couldn't pay attention very well to his surroundings.

But right now he was paying attention to his surroundings.

"Incoming!" He yelled before getting out of the way in a hurry.

Slingshot and Silverbolt were quick to follow when they saw that the femme was heading right at them.

Air Raid pulled up short and transformed before he got close to them.

The good thing was that Violet was also testing their reflexes. She teleported about 50 metres before she would have hit them. Then the after effect of her teleportation field blew right past the spot they had been only moments before they had moved.

"And here I thought Air Raid was nuts!" Slingshot blustered at having to get out of the way.

"I heard that, you try hard." Commented a confident Air Raid, looking down at Slingshot menacingly.

"Why don't you glide down here and say that you stuck up blockhead!" Slingshot threatened.

"Gladly." Air Raid replied with gusto.

It took all Silverbolt had to keep them both apart. The loss of one of their comrades was definitely grating on them all these last few weeks. He didn't know how much longer he could keep them together if Skydive didn't show up soon, or if the Autobots couldn't find the missing Aerialbot and the others.

On the ground, Vanguard had been joined by another Autobot. Fireflight having joined her after Violet's stunt, he figured it was safer on the ground. She was also joined by Blades, who just happened to be wandering by.

"Nice stunt." Commented Blades. "Wonder if she fights as good as she flies!" He however didn't stay long, instead he turned and transformed, flying off in the other direction for his own reasons.

Vanguard wasn't going to answer his query. She had heard of this ones reputation, although the comment did make her think about Violet's level of skill. She was confident Violet could hold her own in a one on one fight, but she wasn't so sure she'd be able to hold her own against someone of Blades' calibre. She actually wondered how she had managed to stay alive with her bad temper and smart aft remarks amongst the Decepticons for so long.

Violet in the meantime had teleported somewhere else to avoid contact and she was now flying around to come down to them.

While in her jet mode, she had VTOL capabilities just like Slingshot did and landed in her jet mode and then transformed to her robot mode.

As she stood up she didn't say a word. She didn't have to; someone was already in her face.

Silverbolt had already landed and was irate. "You're stupid stunt could have injured someone. It was lucky for you we were able to get out of the way in time." He vented as he pointed at her chest.

Violet couldn't see why he was angry and just shrugged, "Well at least I can teleport, you can give me that much. If you guys hadn't of been able to get out of the way in time anyhow, it would have made your battle hardened reflexes look a bit below calibre if I hadn't of been able to teleport." She replied back.

Silverbolt pursed his lip components and admitted she was right. It would have made them look downright bad if they hadn't moved in time, after all they were seasoned Autobots soldiers and she was just like a new recruit learning. He had to give the femme credit for doing that to them to prove a point. He didn't feel as angry at her now.

Being that the group was some distance from the Ark, the ones spying on them were even further away and so deliberately outside of the perimeter of the Ark's sensor range.

"There they are over there!" A voice exclaimed, pushing through the bushes top see them.

"Is she there with them?" Another voice asked, and the first one nodded.

"Then this retrieval should be a piece of cake!" Skywarp gleefully commented, "So how many are there, just a couple?"

Thundercracker had been asked to accompany Skywarp and the Cassette twins to retrieve what Megatron considered his personal property in the form of this young femme. "There are four Aerialbots, a Protectobot that has just left the immediate area, that white femme Vanguard and also Violet."

Soundwave had also come along as an insurance policy to make sure the femme was captured; the two Seekers were only along to handle any Autobots that would get in the way.

"You calling that freak by her name now? Anyone would think you were sweet on her or something?" Skywarp jeered.

Thundercracker knew his wing mate had said it on purpose and so he stayed silent and just ignored Skywarp. He of course did have conflicting feelings about the femme, but as a Decepticon soldier, his job and loyalty to the cause came first.

Soundwave and the rest watched them and kept themselves quiet for as long as they could.

When the femme and the rest of the Aerialbots ascended into the air once again, the two Seekers transformed and followed, while Soundwave and his cassettes remained ground bound to deal with any ground bound issues.

Kaon, Cybertron.

Jazz, Sideswipe and Bumblebee had been asked to attend to a private situation that involved a mix of stealth and demolition, a reason why the Saboteur had chosen his two compatriots. However Ultra Magnus had insisted that two of his own accompany them, two soldiers by the name of Blurr and Hot Rod, as well as two femmes called Firestar and Boost, who had been visiting the Autobot Command Centre on behalf on Elita One at the time.

Jazz hadn't been too happy with having two unknowns thrust upon him, but he followed orders nonetheless.

He and his team had been observing a Decepticon outpost for the last few days and were putting together an attack plan that would involve its complete decimation and also rescue of some Autobot prisoners.

It had taken them a full two orns to map out the place and settle on their mission. Though he was loathe to admit it, he wasn't necessarily sure he could count on the young hothead to stay in line during the mission. He'd heard about Hot Rod's reputation for disobeying orders as well as his penchant for going his own way and those qualities were not needed here at the moment.

But when they approached the outer rim of the building, Jazz and his team were surprised to find that someone else had already beaten them to it. He had spotted two femmes exit the building in a flash of explosions which rocked the entrance and called the various guards to arms.

A quick word with his team and the plan was changed. While the Decepticons were somewhat busy chasing the femmes who caused the clamour, Jazz and a few of the team would continue with their infiltration to rescue the ones they were sent to retrieve.

He did however think to send Hot Rod, Boost and Sideswipe after the two femmes he had seen earlier to see if they needed assistance. But through all the smoke and explosions he couldn't tell what side they were on so they were given instructions to watch out for themselves, not that he thought they would really listen, but at least he did his part as a squad leader.

Elsewhere.

Hot Rod and his entourage had found a hiding spot close to where the Decepticon soldiers were looking for the two femmes. It didn't take them too long to find them.

"There's one of them over there!" Someone yelled. And then the fire fight between the two femmes trying to escape, and the Decepticon guards chasing them, began again.

The two femmes realised that they would have to abandon the shallow cover they had found for now, and made a run for something more worth their while.

The whole way they were running, they were ducking fire and trying to stay together. The Decepticons were trying to pry them apart and pick them off one by one. Eventually they got their wish. The two were chased into an old abandoned warehouse that had seen better days and had to find different hiding spots and stay out of sight.

The three other Autobots had taken advantage of the Decepticons attention being diverted to sneak their way into the warehouse.

"Are you sure this is your old warehouse Sideswipe?" Asked Hot Rod curiously.

"As positive as my bro is narc!" Was the adamant reply. The red Lamborghini led them stealthily around some old and broken crates and showed them a latch that opened a door into an underground tunnel. A tunnel that he quite frequently used as a merchant in his pre-soldier days.

Helping the femmes this way was not the usual mode of operations for either of the two mechs, but the femme Boost was familiar with it, she and her comrades quite often used underground tunnels to escape from their enemies. It had been Boosts idea for escape underground as soon as Sideswipe had recognised the area. He hadn't been too crash hot on the idea but knew it was the best course of action.

They left Boost in hiding by the underground entrance to secure their getaway, while they both went after the femmes.

Later.

Jazz and his team had rejoined again after completing their respective missions. They had rescued the two unknown femmes as well as a few others along with some supplies from the Decepticon stronghold and returned to the Autobot base at Iacon.

While the two femmes were being looked at in their Medical bay, the others were talking.

Boost asked, "I've never seen either of 'em before. I thought Elita One had all the female soldiers under her command?"

But no one answered her question as the Medic came running past and the group had become curious, Jazz and Sideswipe following along to find out what was going on.

The Medic was venting heavily as he had run all the way from the Medical bay to the War room where Ultra Magnus now stood with Optimus and tow of his Officers.

Jazz and Sideswipe couldn't help their curiosity, they stuck their heads around the corner and listened in.

"You'd better come quick…" He vented, "Very strange…femme…organic core?"

Ultra Magnus and Optimus Prime both looked at each other before looking back at the Medic.

Magnus commented, "Ambulon isn't prone to stories, so we had better go and check this out." While Ultra Magnus led the way, He was followed by Prime and Ironhide and Wheeljack, who were helping to hold up the venting Medic.

Jazz and Sideswipe looked at each other confused and disappeared quickly as soon as the others approached the door to leave, then they followed behind them to the Medical bay.

When the first group arrived all they could see was two femmes, one dark blue and silver white and the other a bright red colour. The blue one was wrestling with the red one, trying to remove what looked like the front panel of the chest plate belonging to the red femme.

When the red one espied the return of the Medic she sighed, "And here I thought he'd gone for good. Now I see he brings more to gawk!"

"That's her, that's the one!" The Medic vented out.

Wheeljack exclaimed, "You know Prime, that voice sounds awfully familiar?"

The red femme grins, "Of course it does Wheeljack!"

The scientist couldn't put his digits on the voice and who the femme was as he put his hand on his chin and thought about it. Meanwhile the red femme turned her attention back to the dark blue femme, "C'mon, you've got to pull harder this time. The latch is just jammed, it'll come loose if you give it another go, besides I'm dying to get out of this shell!"

"Shell?" Ironhide queried. He turns to Optimus and says, "That sounds more lahke a human if ya ask me?" He steps forward towards the red femme and lends a hand. One good yank of what the dark coloured femme had been pulling on comes off completely, and the rest of them look on astonished as they peer into the chest cavity of the red femme and see something interesting.

The creature casually sitting inside the red femme shell says, "What? You were expecting someone else?"

Jazz, who had sidled in quietly with Hot Rod and Sideswipe, bursts out laughing, which alerts everyone to the presence of him and his two followers.

"Miss Deane? Is that you?" Optimus asked, very confused.

"Sure is!" She said proudly as she disconnected herself from all the equipment inside the cockpit of her mecha unit and it went into standby mode, standing with its hands hanging down by its sides. She looks over to Ironhide and comments, "You know I'm going to have to fix that now that you so unceremoniously ripped the cover door off of its hinges. You didn't have to pull so hard."

Ironhide apologizes, "Heh, sorry 'bout that, didn't know ya were in there!" He gently puts the cover door down on the floor next to the mecha unit.

"S'ok." She says languidly and grabs a cable inside the cockpit and begins pulling it out. She puts her foot in the loop and jumps over the side of the open seat and descends to the ground, when she uncouples her foot from the loop it was in and she presses a button on her wrist band and the cable slowly retracts back into the cockpit.

Wheeljack looks eagerly down upon her, "So you built this…uh?"

"Shell." Francine says.

"This is the female you told me about, the one that was captured by the Decepticons and forced to make them a weapon?" Ultra Magnus asked Optimus.

"Yes it is. Well this human is, not the mecha shell." Optimus answered, "Though at the moment, I'm wondering what she's doing here on Cybertron?"

"I believe I can answer that." The dark blue femme had been so quiet and unassuming until now that everyone had forgotten she was even there and so it startled Optimus to hear her speak.

"And you are?" He asked.

She stood at attention and saluted, "Alchemist. Head Espionage Officer of the Cyberian Naval Division Sir."

"Cyberian?" Ultra Magnus questioned. "Never heard of you. And what exactly were you doing to the Decepticon stronghold where Jazz and his team found you?"

"That's because the Cyberian race are a trans-dimensional lot." Francine answered calmly, huffing and trying to clean her goggles. "As for the other thing, that's our business." Ultra Magnus didn't seem to happy at being denied that information, but Optimus convinced him not to worry about it for now.

Jazz cut in, "Hey ain't that th'name o'tha lot that Prowl was in'erduced ta, that city that Van' mentioned?"

"Maybe." Francine said.

Optimus looked at Alchemist but then turned his attention to Francine. "So this is what you have been doing since we saw you last?"

"Not really." Francine answered. "This one I didn't make, though I wish I had. And before you ask, it's a completely different model to what Rusty's body was based on. Hers was made for front line combat; this one is made for espionage and medical capabilities. Light to mid range armour, with strong defensive capabilities and a holographic power chip that would put Hound to shame."

The description had certainly caught Wheeljack's attention and he asked, "Mind if I take a look?"

"Sure." Francine pressed a few buttons on her armband and the mecha unit came online again. She looked up at it as it looked down on her. "Wheeljack is curious, wants to have a look at how you work." The femme unit looked from Francine to Wheeljack who'd been pointed out to it and then again to Francine. It made a hand motion to accept the request and then started moving on its own. The fact that the unit was somewhat sentient, both confused them and interested them as it made its way over to the nearest Medical bay table and sat down for a closer inspection by the Chief Scientist.


	17. Chapter 17

*Part 17*

Francine, along with Flashdance (the shell unit) and Alchemist never thought they would be able to get away from inside the Autobot Base, but get away they did.

Or so they thought.

They were completely unaware that for the better part of their descent into the inner layers of Cybertron to their destination that they were not alone.

Every now and again they would look back and double check to see if they were followed and they found no one.

It wasn't that they weren't very good at avoiding being followed or covering their tracks, in fact Alchemist was very masterful at it. But it was just that the one who was following them was even better at it, and rather curious at why the femmes should leave the Autobot base in stealth and in the middle of a night cycle on their own into places that barely anyone on Cybertron would go to anymore. It made him very curious indeed but also very suspicious.

Francine had not initially wanted to venture off of Earth when first asked, but she did eventually decide to accompany Alchemist on this journey for Shadow.

The first part of their mission had been to retrieve something from a Decepticon stronghold, an item of which was now in their possession, required for later use. They had been questioned long and hard by the Autobot Command upon being retrieved by their soldiers and held at their base for questioning, but they did not reveal anymore than what they needed to.

All it had done at the time though was catch the interest of Jazz as he instantly knew something else was up and was determined to find out what. He put forward his idea to his Commander who agreed with him and allowed him to watch and follow them, just in case.

So when he had the opportunity to do so, he did, on their mysterious trip, he went along behind them, very well hidden, the femmes completely unaware of his trailing them.

Steelwind never thought she'd ever find herself setting peds back on Cybertron again. The last time she was here, the last time she saw her home planet; it was from the damaged bridge of a ship, the Genesis, that had ended up crashlanding on Earth.

At the moment though, she had elected herself to watch duty for their little group gathering, so she could be alone to think. Still she wondered, as she looked around the underground cavern, she tried to think exactly how Shadow had roped her into coming back here again.

 _'Just like she does with everything else, I suppose!'_ She thought to herself with a stifled guffaw. _'Manipulating me without me even realising it.'_

Along with herself and Shadow, a small group of seven individuals were gathering here at the site of an old temple that used to be a pre-eminent place of worship to Primus in the days before the last Great War, but now it was just a place abandoned and in dire need of a cleanup in most parts, truly showing its age.

' _A long forgotten piece of history, this church.'_ Thought Steelwind to herself.

The architecture was rather ornately crafted yet also very simple. She was surprised the Decepticons hadn't found it and scrapped it for the precious metal that was all around them. Golden Palladium was very rare here on Cybertron and extremely valuable, and this whole building was made with it, every eave and cornice and all the intricate lacework metal struts adorning the ceiling and its skylight windows.

She supposed it was in an area that the Decepticons hadn't ventured into under Cybertron and was grateful for that alone that this place was still surviving even after all this time.

To femmes like Steelwind, this was still a place of power to those in the know, power that most Cybertronians didn't even know existed, so that power remained safe so long as this place and others like it, still stood and people were still able to come here and perform the old rituals that were part of Cybertron's arcane history and worship to their God, Primus. That power though was only available to those who knew it was there, who had the talent for feeling it and using it. People like Steelwind, who had been trained to use it.

This once grand old temple used to be home to devout Priests and Priestesses of Primus that were known as the Archeon in the golden age of Cybertron. She chuckled to herself, remembering that Earth movie that Shadow liked so much, like the Jedi Knights that were in it. It amazed her how similar their lifestyles were to the old ways of her own people in that respect.

Steelwind herself didn't have much interest in this part of the planets history. But by the time of the last Great War, Archeon were all but a myth, a forgotten part of Cybertronian history.

She had been out here for some time now waiting for the rest to show up. For a moment she looked inside and saw that the other femmes, who had joined them already, were helping Shadow set up for their little arcane ritual.

She looked around at them. She found it unusual for Galaxy to be here considering she was such a staunch Scientist and all, but she knew she could never underestimate Shadow's ability to convince anyone of anything, especially a cold fuelled ex-Decepticon like her. And especially since she herself, the most stubborn of all of them, was cajoled into coming here to this gathering. There was another older femme like herself who was also in hiding on Earth, called Supernova. She was sitting down quietly in a meditative pose with her legs crossed and optics off, waiting for their ceremony to begin. The green one was busying herself with sweeping the dust out of some carvings of the old Cybertronian language on the floor and cleaning the area for the ritual. That was Ranger; she too had an Earth disguise, courtesy of Shadows ingenuity with technology.

As soon as she turned her head around to once again keep a look out for Francine in the Flashdance shell and Alchemist, she saw them wandering blithely around a corner towards her.

"Taking your sweet time I see?" She commented sarcastically.

"Uh no Sir, ah Ma'am." Steelwind had to shake her head, Alchemist had a rather professional manner and her staunch military training took up most of her programming protocols in regards to how she dealt with others that she deemed superior and deserved her respect.

"You see we thought we were being followed and so had to double back a couple of times." Francine added.

Francine was a strange one to Steelwind. She still hadn't gotten used to the idea that this human had deliberately rebuilt herself as a Cyborg. Shadow had also built the mechanoid shell Flashdance out of Francine's red Porsche Boxster for her to use, and that shell harboured a personality, albeit a childlike reflection of Francine's but still an individual personality nonetheless.

Still, she supposed it was no weirder than the fact she and some others could size shift themselves into a human size or smaller or transform into all manner of things apart from the vehicles people of her kind most often used for alternate modes. And that one who calls herself Rusty was strange too, a human mind inside a purpose made mecha shell similar to Flashdance.

Before she turned to go into the hall herself, the smile wiped away from her faceplate into one of concern. She may not be a soldier, but she had very good battle instincts. She knew she was being watched. She knew the femmes had indeed been followed, but not by the one whom they thought had been following them, by another person altogether.

As she looked around, there weren't very many places a body could hide. She caught a slight glint of something and scrutinised it for a few nano kliks before her systems got a lock and recognised who the voyeur was. She just smiled and turned and followed the others inside.

Jazz wasn't enjoying himself cramped into the spot he was. He cursed himself sometimes for the windscreen upon his upper back. He couldn't help wonder though. The femme had looked directly at his position for some time before moving her attention elsewhere, so it made him think. Had he been seen? He intentionally put his scanners up to maximum just in case. Doing so may have picked up something else. For a moment, he thought he had picked up something on the edge of his scanners. But it had disappeared as quickly as it had briefly shown itself. Just in case, he sent a silent message back to base about his position and would call for backup if needed. Things just didn't feel right here anymore.

He had decided to stay on the balcony outside the hall as it provided him not only with adequate cover but also with a view through the upper windows of the inner circular hall that the femmes were now setting themselves up in to do some kind of ritual.

From what he could tell, they were systematically repeating the same line over and over again, it sounded like Old Cybertronian and felt very familiar to him.

He remembered that when he was just a sparkling, he once saw his maternal unit doing something that would be considered arcane in this day and age, but he thought, the way things were back then, it was just another of his mother's many hobbies with which to entertain her time on a daily basis, while his father was off working to support them.

Upon turning his attention back to the femmes, he noticed that the lines they were sitting inside of and that were surrounding them were becoming brighter and brighter the more they chanted, till it got to a point where he could no longer bear to look at it with his normal optical sight and had to change to infrared just to see.

The whole time he had his infrared going, he was also hearing something in the light emanations, like it was talking to him. But he shook it off and focused his attention on what was now happening.

The energy was pulsing around the bodies and out of the spark cores of each individual and starting to coalesce above them. He watched intently as it formed itself into a portal of some kind. A flat circular hole floating above the group.

That too was starting to thrum with light energy, appeared to open then something started coming through. One individual came through with another immediately after, falling with a thud directly on top of the first, then came someone he recognised, Skydive. He was shortly followed by another large individual who landed ungracefully on top of everyone else, making them all groan in pain. A femme followed who landed with swift agility, getting out of the way, shortly followed by another Jazz recognised as Dead End, who landed on his peds on the back of the fourth individual and caught another femme in his arms.

Jazz was surprised, this he had not expected, and evidently nor had the femmes in the group, except Shadow. Jazz was looking at her face and she didn't look the least bit surprised, in fact she was the first to get up and greet the new arrivals and help up those who were piled up on top of each other.

Elsewhere, another had indeed been watching the goings on and was very curious. He had been recording all that had gone on and intended to go over the whole ritual in detail when he had the time to. Whether or not he would inform Decepticon HQ of his sighting or not, he was still deciding.

Ratchet had had a very long day.

The Decepticons, in their efforts to retrieve the Autobots newest resident, who had yet to be officially recruited, had fought dental and digit plate to stay out of their possession. As a result she had made a mess out of herself, resulting in him having to perform some pretty intricate repair work and after all of it, he was so very tired. The strange femme's system was something he wasn't entirely familiar with and it had taken the combined efforts of Perceptor, First Aid and himself to stabilise her. He really had to admit that this strange new technology he was being presented with since those femmes had shown up, was becoming a challenge to him.

Near the end of it, he was just plain exhausted, and had allowed himself to be shuffled off to the spare cot in his office for occasions such as this. He knew First Aid was capable enough to take his place and Perceptor would help him finish up and so had let himself drift off into a fitful recharge, something his systems had been craving for days as his mind had refused to settle down after some old memories had been coming up to the surface, memories of the past he thought he'd long buried and forgotten about. And it was adversely affecting his ability to recharge properly, as well as his work performance.

But this time he drifted off so quickly, he wasn't even aware he was dreaming. That is if you could call it dreaming. Ratchet wasn't the type prone to idle fancy and to him, dreams were just repressed emotions coming to the surface during an individuals recharge state in order to be properly processed. Since the start of the war though, he had pushed many sad personal memories to the back of his processor, drowned out through drinking high grade so he knew he wouldn't dream. But unfortunately, his dreams were not going to take being silent anymore.

 _'Status…Functional. All systems nominal and spark operational. Spark core online processing to begin?'_ A button is pressed. _'Warning!'_ the computer sounds, _'Online status processing terminated from within.'_ Ratchet sat back and observed the computer then sighed heavily. He had been stuck here for days with this stubborn spark. It had refused every attempt to be imbued with a basic personality pattern program and now he was getting annoyed with it. Without the program, he couldn't move forward and put the spark in the body that was built for it.

Another had walked in. It was his bondmate Sunburst. She was just as much or more so a brilliant medical engineer as he was, but where his skills were primarily medical, hers were scientific, and he suspected spiritual also, though she never really showed or admitted it. But still she was a technical genius and sometimes he wondered why she had chosen him to bond with when there were always so many others she could have chosen instead of a common model like himself.

"Is she giving you a hard time again dear?" She asked amused.

"She?" He queried.

"Yes, a she." His bondmate answered. "It's definitely a she!"

"Well of course it is, only a femme could be so damn stubborn!" Ratchet replied sarcastically typing away at a few controls. "The sooner we can get her personality constructs in place the sooner we can get her into the body we built for her.

"I don't think we should bother with the program Ratchet." Sunburst put her hand on the glass sheeting between her and the sparkling and its energy reached out to her and caressed the area on the glass where her hand was with plasma streams, like a Nebula ball. "I think she would be just fine without one."

Ratchet ground his dental plates over his bondmate's hopeful ideas.

"Besides I think we need to make some adjustments to that pre built body you had made, even though a self built body would suit her better instead of a pre built one, I'm sure I can make it comfortable for her."

"Comfortable? She…it is just a spark Sunburst." He argued.

Sunburst darkened her optics and pursed her lip components. Ratchet could tell she knew more about the spark than she was telling him and it made him feel left out.

"You said it yourself especially with the strange lines of code we have seen while studying her sparkcore's pulse emanations that she may be capable of making her own body, and I think that experimental nano-metal I have would suit the best." She argued back.

"And have a wild one on our hands? I think not." Ratchet agreed to disagree. He in his own obstinate way was just refusing to accept she was right, like usual, and it amused his bondmate.

She came around behind him as he crossed his arms in frustration and she hugged him. "Look, its bad enough that the council wouldn't accept our application right now, so it was a Primus sent gift that I was asked to look after this sparkling core for a friend of mine and give it a home. We should just let everything flow and not try to control every aspect of the situation to suit yourself. You know you can't do that with sparklings, they need their freedom just as we have ours. You just have to have a little faith that everything will work out alright." She consoled him.

He grunted in response and gave in to her demands and got up, "It's your turn to protosit now sweet spark." He leaned down and kissed her as he walked past her. "I'm tired and need to recharge. I've been here for over a cycle. It…she…has refused being brought online by me and I've had enough. If you think you can do a better job of it, then go ahead, let the Pit Wraiths of the Great Destroyer run wild upon your aft for all eternity!"

All he could remember was her chuckling at what he said as he left and that told him she took all his efforts in good stride.

He loved that about her; she took everything in good humour for the most part and never took anything personally. She stood up to him and was patient with his every rant and rave and supported him no matter what. She was his adamantine strut, the one who was always there to pick him up when he couldn't do it for himself, especially when he had been partying too hard with his old medical academy friends.

Ratchet woke in his office with a start. Remembering his bondmate in such detail and with such emotion, that it brought cleaner fluid to his optics and he reached for the nearest flagon of high grade he always kept handy to try and drown out the fresh pain the old memories had brought. But after downing the entire glass he still didn't feel any better and sat back to think. First he wiped the fluid from his faceplate and then he sat and stared at the wall for a while before he then slipped off into recharge again.

This time he dreamt something different, something more recent from his last memory.

He had just arrived back home from the Medical centre to find his bondmate reading a data file from the post and then heard her excited squeal. In a flash she had printed out something on a plass sheet and was rushing over to show him.

"Look!" She said excited. "They finally approved our application!"

Ratchet was beaming too when he read the letter. It had been a long time coming. While the adoption of their first sparkling hadn't been 100% official, the Sparkling Registration Board had accepted their application for the twins that they'd recently sparked.

He had however come home early today to tell her he had been accepted into an Officer's position in the Autobot Security Defence Force, which would offer more credited benefits for both of them.

Again he awoke with a start and tried to focus on why he was dreaming so much of his terminated bondmate of late and why certain memories were coming up again and again. In one way he knew it was all those sad memories he had repressed for so long, that were reprising themselves, but he was just too stubborn to believe that.

After this strange femme had shown up, he'd had one or two, and now it was almost every night, like his dead bondmate was trying to reach him from the Well of Allsparks.

He had remembered that event very clearly. While they had hidden the young sparkling and looked after it for Sunbursts sake, not declaring her, they had the added duty of the twins Sunburst had sparked and were now fully registered.

He sat up on his resting cot and thought to himself for a moment, his servos rubbing the bridge between his brow and his nasal sensors to help awaken him from his recharge.

He knew spark budding was a process of spark procreation that was all but forgotten in Cybertronian Society now with the war so fresh in everyone's minds.

For a very long time, even before the start of the Great War, the council sought to control the population upon their metal planet by limiting who was able to allow any buds to continue on to sparks and be able to get a body for them by submitting an application to the registration board, an organisation that no longer existed. Before the onset of civil war the Council had done away with such organisations and this was where the popularity of obtaining sparks from Vector Sigma had come in, obtained purely for the Council to control the populace and so the old natural ways were eventually left behind.

People began hiding natural born sparklings or they were sent away to special safe houses or offworld to protect them. Ratchet remembered clearly and painfully, he'd had to send his bondmate with their sparklings away in this manner. Sunburst had refused to leave their side and the planet and so she had gone with them into hiding.

While it hurt him to be apart from them at the time, he knew the separation helped their protection, but it didn't last, he lost all of them to the war and that was a very sore spot for him. The one regret Ratchet had was not being able to save them when the attack had come that terminated all of them, and that alone had poisoned part of him on the inside for as long as he could remember. What was worse though, their bodies were never found, which was even more of a painful memory as he couldn't mourn for them properly and let them rest and him move on.

Many had known about his bondmate and the twins but not the adopted femme, but the fact they had had two younger sons, it was not really public knowledge either, as Sunburst had gone into hiding not long after they were still young, no one really knew of the burden of loss Ratchet carried around with him all this time they had known him. He was distraught over it and those few who did know about his family's fate saw the change in him that day, but were not game enough to question him about it at any time, even now.

But he wasn't the only one suffering. Many of his comrades who had their own bondmates or offspring, who'd gone into hiding care centres due to the war, lost their young or other family members, many not even surviving. Many were like him, tortured, yet coping with it in their own way.

Some time later after Ratchet lost his family, it was the adult femmes who were targeted by Shockwave on Megatron's orders. By that time, Elita One had taken command of the Female Autobots and offered sanctuary to any of the Decepticon femmes who had now become a target of their own kind for just being what they were, and many of the few surviving sparklings were given sanctuary also.

The whole war so far disgusted Ratchet and it was another reason why he over charged himself most nights with high grade, just to dull the edge off of all the pain and misery he had to live through and help others survive from. Again his thoughts went back to his bondmate, if only he had never sent them away. If only he had had the courage to let them be with him to try and protect them amidst the war, then they might still be alive and he wouldn't be feeling this way and have to deal with these bad thoughts that were returning to him.

He stopped his processors for a moment and thought. He saw no logic in the war, all the death and pain and suffering, and he hoped to Primus, that the God knew what he was doing by allowing it to go on and not let their race destroy itself.

One of the reasons he liked Earth was because of the strength of life here and it wasn't controlled, life always found way to live and he hoped the same vigour of life would return to Cybertron some day and not disappear completely due to the annals of war that Cybertronians had brought to it and that the humans continued to carry out amongst themselves.

This was one of his rare moments where he was sombre and prayed to Primus, despite the fact he was severely overcharged right now, he didn't have one nasty thought in his head, only sorrow and self pity. He wasn't a believer in anything spiritual, but drunkenness often brought strange choices and behaviour to him.

He had found he had wandered out into the Medical bay and noticed Violet was half online and tossing in her recharge. He wandered over and placed his hand on her shoulder to steady her and she awoke suddenly.

"Couldn't settle enough to recharge huh?" He mused. When she didn't answer him he asked, "Are you alright?"

She laid her helm back on the cot and answered flatly. "No." She turned over away from Ratchet and promptly began to whine pitifully.

This wasn't the time nor the place for Ratchet to be his usual bad tempered self and he sighed, he knew she needed help whether she liked it or not. "Com'ere kid." He offered a shoulder plating for the femme, and put out a hand for her to take.

She turned back over to face him. She wasn't the type to be so openly emotional with others she barely knew, but this business of becoming an adult mechanoid was very distressing for her and she knew she was in over her head and couldn't deal with it, especially since she was still dealing with the supposed loss of her brother, whom she missed dearly.

Ratchet knew what it was like, not only to lose family in the course of their war, but also knew how some new recruits could feel about the fighting and so offered her the consolation instead.

In a way she reminded him so much of his terminated foster daughter, right down to the observations he had been making of her in her quiet moments of burying her processors constantly in datapads to the exclusion of everything else around her. His own foster daughter also had days where she was so huffy and gruff like he and Violet were, but really he saw Violet had a tender spark and all she needed on those days, just as his daughter had ever needed, was some affection to help her cope.

Through the war he hadn't had much time to study all of his daughter's weird behaviours. Nor was he able to spend much time with her to find out more about her two younger twin brothers. But the times he was with her, she always seemed to know what was going on even if she was never told. The fact that at times she knew what was going on, completely confounded him. This was one thing that made her different than Violet at least, but he still couldn't help how much the purple femme reminded him of his strange yet quiet daughter Meridian.

This femme in front of him, he knew wasn't his daughter, she was someone else. Another young femme, upset and confused about recent events and trying very hard to hide the fact she really needed someone to talk to, to help her cope with her life going down the proverbial tubes and all he felt he could do was reach out to another tortured spark to try and help.

"Ratchet?" She asked trying to wipe the fluids from her optical screens.

"Hmmm? He answered while he handed her a cloth from his subspace.

"Do you think they'll ever come back?" She paused for a moment to wipe her optics, "Do you think my brother and that Aerialbot and the other one will ever be able to get back here?"

"I don't know to be honest I…" He trailed off when he noticed that the femme had gotten up and her attention was elsewhere, "What is it?"

But she didn't answer; it was like her mind drifted off to somewhere else.

Cybertron.

"Dammit Gladiator, would you hurry up and get your heavy aft off of me?" Grumbled the red mech at the bottom of the pile. "You're messing up my paint job somethin' fierce."

A tall red sleek mech was furious at having his paint job scratched up. He had been the unfortunate one to arrive through the time portal first, drawn from his own time into this place. He was just trying to get up when he had had the nuts and bolts knocked out of him, a winged mech named Twilight fell upon him, shortly followed by another flyer called Skydive, then to make matters worse, someone he knew, who most definitely wasn't a light weight, fell on top of the pile and he got squashed at the bottom and had only just now come back online.

Redline had to admit, that he was very amazed his lightweight chassis had withstood the tonnage on top of him and he was glad he had gotten the molecular structure of his body armour reinforced when he had become an agent back home.

As soon as he could feel the weight of the larger mech move, he pushed off the two lightweight jets on top of him and got up. "Oh my poor paint job!" He sighed, "I hope this place wherever we are, has a decent paint shop somewhere?" He turned to watch the ones he had come to know as Skydive and Twilight be helped up by a few femmes he had never seen before and waltzed over to talk to them. "And who might you lovely ladies be?"

"Ever the opportunistic voyeur I see Red'?" Asked a small black femme from across the room.

That was Redline's cousin from his time, called Catastrophe, or Cat' for short. "Why not!" Redline called back. "If the opportunity presents itself then why shouldn't I dare to ask!"

The femmes just looked at each other and laughed. These two had just thought they would be performing some kind of old energy ritual much like Witches do on Earth, but something else had transpired, resulting in the appearance of these youngsters and the missing soldiers.

The one that Shadow had wanted to bring home was in fact Twilight. While he had been away for some time and had travelled to many places during his sojourn, lost in time, he had also picked up some companions that Shadow had not expected to be brought along with him. He had also evolved into his adult mech form completely, no more trace of the human form Victor left.

She smiled as they greeted each other warmly and he began to ask questions about how long he had been away and what had been going on. He was relieved to find out that his sister was well and doing fine in his absence, as the last thing he had been doing when he was in this particular time, he was a prisoner of the Decepticons with her on Earth and he was very glad to be back in his own time after so long away from home.

Steelwind and the rest of their troupe were off to one side, while the new arrivals were standing, milling around, either in the centre of the room or off to the other side.

After Gladiator got himself up and it had taken him a while to get his bearings. He looked around rather disoriented and asked, "Would somebody please tell me what is going on here? One nano klik I'm at home resting and the next klik I'm being dropped unceremoniously in some forsaken backwater place and set upon by these uncouth individuals."

"Backwater?" Skydive queried. "I would have you know young mech that this happens to be Cybertron during the time of the Great War several years into the 21st Century of Earth time."

"Excuse me, but did you just say we've gone back in time." Gladiator asked not believing the Aerialbots information.

"He's right." Twilight answered. "This is my home time too, though not my home planet, "He turned to look at Shadow, "I believe you and the other femmes here had something to do with us being brought here to this place instead of us turning up on Earth?"

While Twilight talked to Shadow further, Cat' found herself a spot next to the big gentle giant and tried to console him. "Settle down big guy, it won't so bad. Think of it as… a holiday!"

Gladiator grunted and kicked an old tin can putting his head into his hands, "Some days it just doesn't pay to come out of recharge."

"Seriously though, if it makes you feel any better, I think we were all grabbed without rhyme or reason from other places." The femme told him, "Because," She looked lovingly at Dead End, "I was in the middle of something myself." She grinned, "And I would rather not have been interrupted if you know what I mean!"

"TMI, Cat', TMI!" Redline exclaimed.

"Like you've never been caught in the middle of that sort of thing in your line of work, cousin!" She accused him as she got up and crossed her arms and that made the red mech grin broadly.

"Yeah well…that's none of your business anyway." He replied quietly.

The Autobot Skydive had been lucky enough to be in the possession of some old date files when he had been nabbed and hastily put these precious items back into the satchel he was now carrying slung over one shoulder pad, "I for one cannot wait to get home and see my brothers again, it has been such a long time away from them. Not that I am complaining mind you, it was such a treat to be away from the war for a while."

Jazz had snuck into the hall from above on the outside balcony and had been watching them for some time and was gleaming at seeing Skydive again. "Ya know 'Dive, there's more'n just ya bro's that'll be happy t'see ya!" He took a chance at breaking his cover to greet his friend.

"Jazz, is that you?" The Aerialbot asked.

When the white Porsche grinned, the flyer made for the stairs that went up to the upper level and made a beeline for his comrade.

Skydive was beaming. It's not that he didn't want to leave the library of archives he had been in, but he was glad and also relieved that he was indeed home again. And he stepped forward without a thought and hugged Jazz openly, "Boy Jazz, Am I ever glad to see you again."

Jazz just grinned coolly, "Yeah, nice t'see ya too kid." He looked over the group, "Looks like we got a lot a'company! Not gonna be easy getting y'all back t'Iacon t'gether. That is if ya'r goin' that way!"

Dead End kind of flinched away slightly, "Does this mean I'm going to be lashed up in stasis cuffs, arrested and then locked away in some dark corner to rot for the rest of my natural life now?" He asked solemnly.

The femme next to him asked, "Now why would anyone do that to you D'?" As she grabbed his arm and wrapped herself around it lovingly.

Redline sighed and shook his head and tried to explain to his cousin, "Because Catastrophe, he's a Decepticon soldier here, this is his home time. He's a wanted criminal here when in the company of Autobots.

Catastrophe looked up at Dead End and moved her arms to his mid-section then turned to look at Skydive and Jazz, both of which were the only two in the room with Autobot insignias and she asked them, "Is that what you're going to do to him?"

Jazz didn't know what to say. The femme had such a forlorn look in her optics and it reminded him so much of Sideswipe when he tried to do the cute puppy dog optics.

"Please don't hurt him, he's my friend!" She asked kindly and then began to squeeze him even more, which made him wheeze and he tried to get out of her grip, and this made the two Autobots chuckle.


	18. Chapter 18

*Part 18*

Jazz could not believe his good fortune. If it had not been for Steelwind sacrificing herself to help them get away, then he and most of the others would have been Decepticon prisoners for sure.

He could not say the same for Shadow and Steelwind herself though.

The two femmes had gotten separated from their group. They had all gone in one direction towards Iacon to escape their pursuers. And the Decepticons, hoping to cut off the group or try to capture them, had only been able to ensnare the two femmes when they became separated from the rest of the group.

At the moment, Jazz was leaning against a wall waiting his turn for a check up after arriving back to Iacon base. He had a look around at the individuals here that he had been able to bring back with him. While he knew a few of them already, there were some he had never seen before or knew about.

He had been asked by Optimus to keep them in one place until he was ready to deal with them as he was helping Ultra Magnus deal with other Decepticon matters. They were on a battle run to one of the bases outposts that was under Decepticon attack. Jazz supposed the ones that had come after him and their group had decided to attack Iacon as an afterthought.

Jazz turned and looked at the red mech with the dented fenders and scratched up paint. That was Redline. Overconfident, but a damn good shot and a great driver to boot. He had been one of the group that had helped them get away from the Decepticons. He was lying on one of the cots being attended to by Boost, who had some medical experience and was asked to help out for now. Though he was spending more time chatting her up than allowing her to mend his wounded fuel lines and Jazz found that amusing, it reminded him of the last time he was on Cybertron with Sideswipe and the red warrior was being attended to by a female also.

Next to him was the flyer Twilight. When he got back to Earth, he would have to look into this young mech's past a bit more. The fact that he looked a little too much like Starscream was a concern.

At the moment, he was happily chatting away with his maternus. She was virtually unscathed, sitting next to his bench in a chair. She was apparently called Galaxy now, the dark purple femme he had seen earlier amongst the group. Her, he knew, or at least she used to be a Decepticon Scientist he knew as Freefall. He also knew she was Skywarp's older sibling, just as deadly but with a ruthless intelligence that rivalled Starscream's. All she did was sit and listen to her offspring chatter away.

He felt uncomfortable with the cold stare she gave him while he was looking at Twilight, so he smiled to try and make himself feel better, but she didn't change her expression. After she turned away, he gave his attention to the rest.

The young black femme Catastrophe was sitting alone moping in a chair in the corner. She was moping over Dead End, who had ended up being put into lock up. Being a combiner, the Autobots weren't going to take any chances with him breaking free and returning to his comrades, so he wasn't allowed any visitors and so she had nothing to occupy her time with for now. Jazz suspected that there was something more to her connection to Dead End, he could recognise some of her depressive symptoms of being away from the Decepticon and made a note to investigate the matter further at another time.

The green femme Ranger, only received minor scratches and was also waiting along the wall with Jazz. Her he did not know, but he had to admit, her robot mode reminded him of that human female in an Earth movie he saw once, Pocahontas. She very much had that Native American feel about her despite being a transformer. Hound would probably go for her sort of looks if they ever met, he thought.

Skydive had sustained heavy damages and was recovering in his own private room. Even though the mech had been in the heat of the battle before, he'd admitted to Jazz after they brought him in that it had been ages since he had felt the rush of battle and been this beaten up. So it made Jazz wonder just how long Skydive, Dead End and Twilight had been gone for exactly and where they had just come back from.

The big gentle giant Gladiator, hadn't been much good combat wise. While he had a monster truck for a vehicle mode and also had tough armour, he was virtually impervious to energy blasts. Despite his gentle nature, he had managed to come through with only a few scratches and was sitting down on the floor along the wall next to Ranger on the other side of Jazz.

Alchemist, the strange and beautiful blue femme he had met earlier was on life support from excessive damage, a pity she wasn't an Autobot soldier, he thought. She held her own against the odds and helped them escape despite the loss of two of them to Decepticon capture.

Francine Deane was the other, someone he already knew who was somewhat of a friend. She was with her unit trying to fix the moderate damage it had received. It actually looked like she was argueing with it. Wheeljack was with her being ever curious and she was constantly telling the scientist to go find another patient to work on so he would get out of her hair, but then he always came back after he had finished another patient and would bother her even more with questions about the shell unit, so she just gave up and put up with him.

Then there was the femme called Supernova. He knew her. This one had a history with the Autobots. Like Vanguard, she was a sibling of one of their own. He thought it was a pity that Ironhide had gone out with the others on battle patrol before he'd had a chance to see her, as Jazz was sure he would have a lot to talk to his younger sister about when he returned. She too had taken a lot of hits and was being repaired in the Medical bay, now resting on her own private bench with a screen around her in the corner.

Thinking about the fact that so far both Ironhide and Trailbreaker had had loved ones returned to them, made him feel all the more sour about the memory of his own losses, the many friends and family he had lost over the course of the war and of course his bondmate Jive.

Right before she had been assigned to the civilian science vessel, Jive and he, had put their sparkling offspring into protective custody as most families did during the war, only to have her killed in a Decepticon attack. Jive had lost a lot of her vibrant personality then and wanted to get away from everyone for a while and so signed up for guard duty on the ship, the Genesis, a civilian science vessel working with the Autobots. Jazz had always regretted letting her go because it was the last time he saw her and they never got to reconcile their relationship, especially since he still grieved her death even after this long.

He sighed to himself and looked around the room again.

There was one last individual that he didn't know the name of, or if it even had a name. The robot was quiet and hadn't uttered a word since he first laid optics upon it back at the temple. He thought it was just some drone with a high level combat program, as it had proven its worth in battle for them. He felt it must have some fairly sophisticated battle computer as it was able to hold its own against Bludgeon, whom they'd fought in their escape to Iacon and that Decepticon wasn't unskilled by any means.

Where the rest of the Decepticons came from, he didn't know, but he figured Bludgeon had called for back up to take care of them while he fought with the drone.

He sighed again. It had certainly been an interesting last few hours. Something he wouldn't forget for quite a while. He had resigned himself to being the last for repairs as he had the least extensive injuries requiring treatment of any of them, and so sat down against the wall on the floor to wait his turn.

It wasn't long before Optimus sent him a call to gather all the newcomers into a separate room where they could be talked to and questioned. Jazz didn't think of it as a bad thing, but the Autobot Commander had to know what he was dealing with, who were these new people and whether they were a threat or not.

In the room.

"I'm so bored!" Gladiator whined. "The least they could have done is left us something to entertain ourselves with."

"G' you're such a big kid!" Catastrophe mused.

"I just miss my role playing games that's all. In our time you know there isn't much use for real battle and my two older brothers, do all the fighting in the family, so all I'm left with are my games and a name that doesn't really suit me."

Redline was preening because he had his pristine red and blue paint job back and was lounging back admiring Ranger who was alone on side of the room, reading. He was considering going over to her and chatting her up, but Cat' and Gladiator talking had distracted him and he turned his attention to them instead, "What, you don't even chase any femmes?" He questioned, "That's just…well it's not normal if you ask me!"

"I'm sorry Redline but not all of us have a knack with the femmes like you do." He pouted. "Besides I don't have your looks either."

"Yeah Redline, you pompous prick!" Catastrophe whispered, as she tried to comfort the big blue mech.

"Well," He started smugly, "I guess not everyone can be as great as me." He turned to the small black femme and added, "And don't think I didn't hear what you said either short stuff!"

Catastrophe eagerly stuck her glossa out at him in disrespect then quickly went back to talking to Gladiator and Redline went on over to talk to Ranger.

Just then Galaxy walked in through the door, helping Twilight when needed and sat him down in the space that Redline was just about to take.

Redline ground his dental plates in frustration and went back to his previous seat and sat back to relax again. He noticed that the golden drone who had been with them was in the room. He had almost forgotten it was there as it had been so quiet, so much like a statue.

It had been standing near one of the walls staring forward in an attention stance and not moved a servo since he had come in.

He turned around to Catastrophe and Gladiator and asked, "So, uh, what do you suppose its story is?"

"I don't know, I think I saw it with Twilight and Skydive once when they were in our time." Catastrophe answered.

"I haven't heard it say anything yet, do you think it can speak?" Gladiator asked.

Twilight was only partially listening to their conversation but piped up when he heard them talking about the golden drone. "All I can tell you about it is that it accidentally came through one of my time portals with myself, Skydive and Dead End one time. It doesn't talk and it just kept following us around so we let it come with us and that's all."

The drone remained like a statue despite clearly knowing it was being talked about. And looking at the warlike multi armed drone reminded Gladiator of something. He looked around at Twilight who had his own maternus with him and suddenly felt a pang of jealousy and sadness, "I miss my mother too."

Redline was just about to ask him why he hadn't bothered to approach her yet seeing as how they had seen when they arrived, but then Catastrophe told him they were not in their normal time and so shouldn't say anything about their ancestry in front of anyone from this timeline.

"If it makes you feel any better I miss my mother too." Catastrophe added.

Redline said, "Well if I had one to miss, I'm sure I would, but I don't, sorry. That's one part of my life you guys will always have that I don't."

Catastrophe suddenly felt sorry for Redline. Under all that bravado and vanity, he was just a young adult like they were. He never had a maternus around growing up as she was killed in the final fight that brought the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons to an end in their time. Redline had admitted to her stellar cycles ago that he thought it was a fitting end for a soldier like her to go out. He hadn't gotten the chance to grow up with her or get to know her as he was only a stellar cycle or so old when she was terminated in battle. His paternus had raised him after that, while he had not known much about raising sparklings, he did the best he could and eventually became quite good at it, his father eventually moving on to several more bondmates and adding more siblings to the family.

Catastrophe hugged her cousin to share his pain of loss, but she had a funny moment and snorted.

"What was that for?" Redline asked.

"You remember the day your youngest sister was brought online and you told me something?"

He remembered exactly what he had said, "Oh yeah!" And he laughed. "Twelve younger sisters, all beautiful, all deadly and all off limits to lecherous little me!"

Both of them laughed at the old statement.

The Medical bay.

When he walked in, Optimus hadn't actually received much in the way of injuries, but like clockwork, Ironhide had jumped in front of a blast meant for him when his attention had been distracted and had gotten downright slagged yet again.

"Looks bad." Jazz commented.

The Medic that had begun to attend to him replied. "At the most, we will have to keep him here till we are done and he needs plenty of rest and recovery."

"The damage is pretty extensive?" Asked Optimus.

"He has had extensive trauma to his chest plating and is suffering from several ruptured fuel lines in and around his spark core. They will need to be reattached or replaced completely. If we don't do it immediately, then he may go offline." The Medic answered.

"Ahm fahne Prahme, really, ah can be back on duty, ready fer battle again in a megacycle." Ironhide tried to assure his leader, all the while coughing up some fluids through his statement and the Medics preparing him for surgery.

While he was boasting about his readiness, the femme recovering in the cordoned off area next door to him was snickering. "Hah! Yuir about as ready tae return tae battle as I am tae be th'next Prime, ye daft twit." She started. "Ye always were too stupid tae look at who's gun ye were jumpin' in front of."

Ironhide stopped dead trying to squirm out of the Medic's grasp at the sound of the femme's voice that he moist definitely recognised. "Am ah hearin' things or does that femme there sound just lahke 'Nova?"

Optimus knew who he was talking about, Supernova being his friends' younger femme co-creation. He looked at Jazz quizzically when he began to smile and then he wandered over to the next bench and pulled back the privacy curtain and finding a femme that he had thought long dead. "Supernova?!" He pulled back the curtain completely so Ironhide could see her also.

"It is you?" Ironhide exclaimed, "Why didn't ya tell me ya were still functional ya loudvocaled little gear head, and where's …?"

When the Medic realised the stout old soldier wasn't going to co-operate, he had a sedative chemical added to his main fuel line and he dropped back down onto the bench with a thud.

"Well I guess it'll be another few hours b'fore he's awake again!" And Supernova, who had been watching the whole debacle, promptly turned over away from the group and went offline herself for recharge, leaving astonished onlookers standing by curiously.

Optimus turned around to Jazz, "Ironhide usually doesn't act like that in the Medical bay?"

Jazz replied as they walked out the door together, "Well, it might have somethin' t'do with his younger sister being there. 'Nova always was a tad irritatin' and drove ol' Ironhide beserk!"

Optimus chuckled. He had to agree with Jazz there. Even when he was still just a soldier, before receiving the Prime's mantle, he remembered Supernova. She drove everyone to their brink. Still, it was her best quality as a trainer. She was just as good as or more so as her elder brother for bringing out the best in troops and getting the job done.

His thoughts drifted to the others who had come in with Jazz. "Is the other matter taken care of?"

"Yeah. The ones that I could move are up there while the rest are still in the Medical bay. Kup is up in the meetin' room now questionin' 'em all." Jazz replied. He thought for a moment, "Hey Boss mech, you think it's weird that all these people from th'past are showin' up so quickly now after that strange femme Shadow turned up."

"Yes very, Jazz. I wouldn't have asked you to keep tabs on her if I didn't think she warranted our attention. There is just something strange about her and we need to discover just what." He looked at his Special Ops Officer for a moment, "Didn't you say that femme was with the group?"

"She was." Jazz started, "But she and another femme were separated from us in our retreat back 'ere an' now they're with the 'Cons."

"Do you know who the other femme was?"

Jazz thought for a moment. "Not sure, but she did kind'o remind me of ol' Captain Lonestar. An' 'er vocals were familiar too, just couldn't place 'em. I think someone in the group called 'er Steelwind. Thinkin' 'bout organising a rescue?"

"Perhaps." He answered.

Megatron had been going over reports of their last mission to steal energy resources from some human installation for energon when he was contacted by video transceiver.

"You're not due to contact me for another four solar cycles with the details of the next shipment delivery as well as those new recruits you promised Shockwave. Your explanation had better be good."

' _Things will be explained in time my Liege. But for now I wish to show you this.'_ Shockwave pressed a button on his console and it switched to a room with at least a dozen Decepticon soldiers trying in vain to subdue a rather tall grey femme he very much knew the identity of. Despite her apparent cosmetic upgrades since he had last seen her, he still recognised her.

He knew it was somewhat futile of these soldiers to try and fight her knowing her skill level and strength.

He allowed a small grin to creep across his faceplate before Shockwave turned the screen back and his expression deadened again. All Shockwave knew was her face and name, he knew nothing else other than the fact Megatron had been after this femme to settle a score with. He also knew her capture would satisfy breeching protocol to inform Megatron and possibly score some points with his leader.

"I will join you as soon as possible with an entourage of three, be sure that she is properly subdued and in one piece or I will show you my full displeasure. Oh and Shockwave, good work."

' _I thought you would be pleased my Liege. Seeing as how she has eluded your grasp for so long and the fact she was seen here on Cybertron after being presumed terminated, I could not pass up the opportunity to capture her for you.'_ Shockwave replied.

Megatron could tell Shockwave was after something else, but he also thought it strange that a femme of her reputation would allow herself to be caught so easily. Despite how good Shockwave seemed to think about his soldiers, they were just no match for her, judging by the futile efforts of the ones in the video he was shown. He surmised she must have had another with her she was protecting, another whom Shockwave knew of. "Enough with the pleasantries Shockwave. Was she the only prisoner?"

' _No. There was one other with her.'_ Shockwave switched the screens to show a lone black femme sitting in the corner of a cell with her legs tucked up and her head up against a wall and her sight staring blankly into space, her expression and body demeanour showing clear signs of energon depletion.

' _This is turning out to be a very good day.'_ Thought Megatron. _'First a successful mission run and now this, very interesting indeed!'_

He turned to look at Shockwave when the screen was turned back. "The black femme is yours to do with as you wish for now, but bear in mind she is the femme from my report that I wish you to investigate and I want a full report of all your findings." If Shockwave was able to smile, Megatron guessed his Military Commander would be grinning because of that last bit of information. "As for the other femme, leave her entirely to me. Now, the others and I will join you shortly once we get to the space bridge and make our way to Darkmount to deal with the prisoners in person."

' _As you wish my Liege, I will make ready your arrival.'_ Shockwave answered and disconnected the video feed.

Megatron sat and thought for a moment before turning on the base speakers and announced himself. _'Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, to the departure level, now.'_ Once he switched off the speakers, he got up and went to the exit tower to meet the others for departure.

Optimus had wanted to put together a plan to try and rescue the two femmes from Decepticon imprisonment as well as deal with all these newcomers they currently had in residence.

While several others had asked to be involved in the rescue, he had supposed they wanted to become involved in something, as up till recently, it had been very quiet, and the ones who had been with him and Ultra Magnus in the last fight were thirsting for some more action.

A few ideas had been bounced around the room and were currently being discussed amongst those present.

Kup had systematically gone around the room to each individual Jazz had brought with him and asked them a series of questions to gain further information about them and handed over the datapad when Optimus had entered the room with Jazz, shortly followed by the rest who were now in attendance.

Twilight had been the last and was feeling rather uncomfortable, being stared at by several in the room.

"He kind of looks like that Decepti-dope Starscream?" Hot Rod added.

"Might be one of those Seeker clones you know?" Springer answered back to his friend.

Twilight looked at the young mech and the triple changer blankly, he didn't really know who Starscream was but he was sure it was the mean tempered silver, blue and red Seeker who had experimented upon him when he was previously on Earth when he was human sized still. The fact that it was not the first time someone had mentioned his resemblance to the Decepticon Air Commander, did not surprise him. Though it had made him curious, and he had yet to get the chance to question his mother about the matter.

Elita One had also decided to join them along with Chromia and Moonracer. When news of Supernova's presence had gotten around, she had come herself and sent Boost back to their base to assist Beta, who was the current femme in charge.

Chromia however had yet to see her beau as Ironhide was still in recovery from his wounds and wasn't allowed to have visitors until the Medics had said it was safe to do so, especially since they needed a sterile environment for his recovery.

She hadn't liked it, but she agreed to it after Elita One convinced her it was for the best to wait. Supernova had also refused to talk to anyone until Ironhide was awake again and this only frustrated Chromia even more. The sole reason she had come along with her Commander was to see Ironhide and also question Supernova about something personal and had been denied both.

And to make matters worse, some young red hothead called Redline was trying to chat her up from the moment he laid his optics on her. He just wasn't taking no for an answer. It annoyed her, but still it gave her a sense of satisfaction to know and feel that someone so young thought she was still good looking for her age and worth bothering with.

"Excuse me but perhaps I can offer some information about the layout of Darkmount, if you are intending upon…breaking in and getting back out without a fuss?" Galaxy offered.

"Hey I've heard of her, ain't she a former 'Con scientist? Skywarp's sister?" Hot Rod whispered in Springer's audio.

"Yeah she is." He whispered back.

Arcee, who was sitting next to both of them, elbowed Hot Rod to keep quiet.

"But you haven't been an active soldier amongst the 'Cons for some time Galaxy. You wouldn't know much about all the changes they have made there since you were last one of them."

"Yes but I would know of secret passageways into and out of Darkmount, that may still be available and open for us to use." She answered.

Optimus had to agree that she had a point. It was the best solution so far amongst all the ideas that had already been discussed. Get into Darkmount through a secret passage and back out the same or another secret way out, without having to deal with platoons of soldiers to plough through. It would certainly help to cut down injuries and problems. "Perhaps we should start organising who will go with who." He stated.

"Excuse me but we would prefer to handle this ourselves." Piped up a green femme. "The two that are being imprisoned are our own and we would wish to take care of this, be out of your way once again and return back home where there will be no further trouble."

"Who's that?" Hot Rod whispered to Springer.

Springer answered, "I think Jazz said her name was Ranger."

"Would you two please be quiet!?" Arcee yelled quietly, "I'm trying to hear what's going on."

Optimus answered Ranger, "While I do understand that you have a right to rescue your friends Ranger, I think it would be better if we helped you to handle it, seeing as how the Autobots have relevant experience in dealing with Decepticon soldiers."

"I assure you that my friends and I are more than capable of handling ourselves." Ranger continued to defend her group.

Optimus sighed to himself. Next door was a group of unknown youths that Jazz had brought back with him from the temple, and not much information could be gotten out of them by Kup's questions a s most decided not to say anything. From what he had gleaned from Jazz's report, a small amount of them had reappeared along with Skydive and Dead End through a portal, but from where or when he did not know.

His attention lingered upon Twilight for a moment. This had been the mech that they had tried to save as a human not so long ago. At least that was the information that had come from that individual through Kup's questioning. He was glad that he was safe and his sister back on Earth would certainly be happy to see him again in one piece.

Then there was this current rescue issue that none of the others in this room could agree upon and several were now arguing about.

"Enough." Optimus boomed. The discussion had reached a fever pitch as many were arguing about who was better suited to do what and who had the rights to take part. As soon as Optimus had spoken, everyone fell silent. "We will take two small teams comprised of a mix of Autobots and these other individuals who want their friends back."

Chromia looked like she was about to object when Elita interjected with a hand on the femmes shoulder plating.

"We are here for other matters, remember?" Elita said, to which Chromia let the other matter go and nodded.

Optimus knew that he needed to get to the bottom of where all these other mechs and femmes were turning up from and if so, where they needed to go to be sent home and to keep them safe while they found a way to do that.. He was already lucky enough that Prowl and Trailbreaker were able to provide some forthcoming information on behalf of Vanguard. And he trusted Jazz to extend his research in the area. Now not only looking into Shadow's affairs, but also all the other new mechanoids that kept turning up. But the fact he was getting thwarted many times when wanting to find out more information was getting rather annoying now. But with situations like now, he had to have faith that everything would work out in the end for everyone.

Darkmount.

Megatron had arrived in a short amount of time to his base of operations on Cybertron due to the fact he was eager, not only to find out more about this mysterious black femme that had eluded and intrigued him on Earth and what she could provide for his Decepticons, but also to see this grey femme, now his prisoner, and exact his vengeance upon her for her past deeds that had been denied him for so long.

He had wanted to bring along Soundwave but thought it would be better to leave him in command of the Nemesis while he was gone. His Communications Officer would have been very useful in questioning both femmes, uncovering their secrets, but it was better that he had someone back at the Nemesis he could trust to run things while he was gone and did not know how long this would take.

He had spent the better part of over a mega cycle already listening to Shockwave explain about the offline femmes programming in his private laboratory and reporting on some of the things he had already discovered that could be useful to the Decepticon cause. But he had yet to find what Megatron really wanted.

In her weakened state, Shockwave was able to sedate and restrain her and keep her that way till he was finished going through her programming and taking all he wanted. All data that he could access had been copied to an external source for later research.

But all Megatron was really interested in was the femmes capability to arise again from certain termination. He had already witnessed her supposed death at the receiving end of his fusion cannon back on Earth during a battle then he had seen her fully functional and whole again later upon videos taken by Laserbeak of the Autobot base. Shockwave had already been apprised of this situation through a report given him by Megatron and was just as eager to find any information as his Commander was.

Shockwave had assured him that he would not stop until he found the relevant programming codes for the process the femme had for reviving herself and would endeavour to convert those codes for use in Decepticon circuitry as soon as possible.

Against his better judgement, as he was eager to be elsewhere, Megatron left the research upon the black femme with Shockwave. Unfortunately Starscream had also been in attendance and was keen to see what exactly the black femme had that would be useful. Megatron was sure he would be plotting something by the time he returned from questioning the grey femme. He was sure Shockwave would be doing the same, only his Military Commander was not as open about it as Starscream was.

As he made his way down to the detention cells, he felt grateful that he was now alone. Dealing with this femme, a notable individual from his past, and it was something he wanted no one else around for. He wasn't in the mood to explain to anyone exactly what he was going to talk to the grey femme about and why he wanted to keep their conversation to himself.

There were connections between himself and the grey femme that he was loathe to let anyone know about, connections he was sure were still secret, none that anyone knew about except him and her..

Not that it really mattered. There would have been nothing anyone could do to him should anyone discover this information, blackmail was one game no one could play with him.

The femme had finally been subdued and from what Megatron had been told, it had taken nearly two dozen of Shockwave's soldiers to do it. She was currently sitting alone in a solitary cell, chains attached between her and the wall, to all her limbs, neck and hip casing to lessen her movement and keep her restrained.

She was currently sitting on the floor with her legs crossed in a meditative pose and her optics offline and didn't appear to take any notice of his presence.

He looked at the sole guard who was watching the femme and told him gruffly, "Leave and don't come back till you're told to." The guard quickly got up and left hastily without a fuss and then Megatron was left alone to stand in front of the femme's cell watching her venting very slowly.

As soon as the guard had left, the femme switched her optics on and arose from her sitting position, keeping her optics upon him the whole time she moved.

The first thing that Megatron noticed was that she was taller than he remembered her, but then he'd already seen she'd had a slight cosmetic redesign with a completely different alternate mode than she used to have.

She was quite literally the one person who had been responsible for his choice of removing all femmes from his ranks as a source of distraction and he never regretted making that decision, however she was still functional and he wanted her taken care of for things that happened between them in the past.

His great pride would never allow him to admit that this femme was as much his equal as he felt Optimus Prime to be, in strength, intelligence and power. But the fact that she could stand up to him, and fight strength for strength with him, made his spark jolt with glee just like that of a sparkling that had a new toy to play with, and this was something he must finally rid himself of, she was a danger to his plans and a potential weakness that must be eliminated once and for all. Something he had tried to do in the past, but every opportunity had escaped him, until now.

She reached the front of the cell and stood very close to the bars, occasionally getting static energy jumping between her body and the bars and she wasn't the least bit concerned by it at all. She reached out as far forward with one hand as she could and said "I was wondering how long it would take for you to get here." He of course didn't take very kindly to her stroking his cheek plating. "Well, it certainly has been a very long time hasn't it!" She smirked noting his emotionless expression over her words. "Now that we are alone, is there anything you want to talk about?"


	19. Chapter 19

*Part 19*

Then.

It was late.

Heartbeat was doing her rounds for the end of her shift in the Central Medical Centre in Crystal City and making final notes on the day's work. She was also very weary and wanted to be home as soon as possible for recharge.

But that wasn't going to happen.

She was just passing by the last room in the hall when she noticed a light on in the private tech room belonging to Shadow.

She walked up to the door and swiped her security card. She wasn't too surprised to step inside the doorway to find Shadow busily working away at the mech body on the table and one of her partners in crime, Galaxy, typing at the consoles.

Heartbeat vented out, "Still working on that decrepit old heap are you?"

Shadow looked up from her work for a nanoclick, then went back to work again.

The black femme had been in possession of this old terminated body for a long time now, but just recently had started work on it.

What bothered her the most though was that this mech, although a completely different colour, was almost the spitting image of Starscream. And she didn't like it one bit. She'd had enough of that particular mech already when Galaxy dragged him into the city not so long ago. Although there were times when looking at the offline mech's faceplate, she could have sworn it reminded her a little of Shadow too.

"So you two aren't any closer to finishing than you were over a week ago?" Heartbeat asked.

"We only need to finish encoding his cerebral programming and that is all." Galaxy stated.

"Then back to stasis for him." Shadow added.

Heartbeat looked over the body. The sleek gold, black and white Seeker was nearly 100% complete bar the fact he sat offline with his head casing wide open and at the mercy of both Shadow and Galaxy, tinkering with his cybernetic brain.

Just looking at the old Decepticon warrior made her vents shudder in their intakes. She had never liked Decepticons and never would, even if they were former ones like Galaxy and the mech on the table were.

Of all the places that someone would bring a Decepticon warrior into, either functional or offline, it had to be her hospital and she didn't like it one bit.

She was the head of the entire faculty that ran this hospital and as such was responsible for all the departments as well as all the patients. And to have Shadow working on a Decepticon, right under her nasal sensors, in her hospital, when she had already objected so vehemently to Starscream being around previously, was just downright insane.

But Heartbeat thought for a moment, this was Shadow, her and insane go hand in hand. And she had only allowed the mech to stay here this long due to the fact it was still offline. And being that Shadow had been working on it for so long, she figured it would never come online ever again.

She knew Shadow could perform medical miracles when it came to fixing things, but she sincerely thought that bringing Transformers except for herself, back from the dead was beyond even Shadow's broad capabilities.

Still, even she wouldn't underestimate the femme and her capabilities, as she had seen some things in her short time here as a Medic that normal mechanical beings would baulk or gasp at or be in shock about. _'You never know if she might succeed.'_ She thought. _'God help us, or Primus or whoever it is these Mechanoids pray to, because they will need it if Shadow ever discovers how to bring people back from the dead.'_

The fact that both Shadow and Galaxy had been able to do a lot of work on this golden mech in the last two weeks with Starscream having been recently around, must have been the reason that the Decepticon soldier was brought here, for medial samples. At the time she had been somewhat curious and did some research, finding out that this golden mech was once Starscream's older sibling, one that Starscream himself had apparently murdered some time ago on Cybertron.

Still it made her wonder about how Sunstorm and Shadow were connected and how the femme had gotten hold of the body shell so long ago. How Shadow had found the remains and brought it here, she didn't know, but she wouldn't put anything beyond the means of the crafty black femme.

She had sat herself down watching the two work away quietly and had to admit that she was rather rundown after pulling a double shift yet again. She had allowed herself to drift off into a cycle of recharge and so, didn't notice what time it was when Shadow had started talking to her to get her online again.

The femme was just disconnecting all the wires when she began to try and get the CMO's attention. Galaxy was shutting down all the encoding systems and Shadow was closing up all the head and helm panels.

"Time to go!" Shadow said as she went past. Heartbeat was rather drowsy though. "Heartbeat?" She was nudged.

Now.

'Heartbeat.'

The CMO was relaxing, taking a stasis nap in her office when the Head of Security had waltzed in to talk to her. Not wasting any time, Stakeout sent a private communication message to the CMO to wake her up so that they could start their meeting.

"Huh?" the Medic pinched the bridge of her nasal sensor as she came online. It was a habit she still retained even after she had become a mechanoid being.

"Pulled a triple shift?" Stakeout asked.

"Yes. I didn't even make it out of my office this time. Now what was it you wanted to discuss?"

Stakeout took a file out of subspace and put it on the desk. "One of our mercenary's found this one."

Heartbeat picked up the file and looked at the scans of the individual. "He's going to need some medical repairs."

"That's the condition he was in when they found him. They want you to go down there as the medical crew downstairs is requesting your attendance."

"There used to be a time I had to fight to get their respect and attention, now they want and need me for just about everything. Running this hospital keeps me busy as it is," Heartbeat replied. "Without me having to go and visit that dreadful place, or even go to Earth when asked."

In the short time Heartbeat had been the CMO at the main medical centre here in Crystal City, she had forcefully worked her way to the top position despite the older and more experienced Medics around her, and being that she wasn't a native Cybertronian either, made her success all the more unique.

When she had first switched over to a mecha body, she had been taught everything there was to know about Cybertronian medicine by Shadow. Many medics in the Cyberian Alliance had not had that same privilege and were envious at first. Shadow was one of the very few with a vast knowledge of all sorts of techniques medical, scientific and spiritual that surpassed the knowledge of most others. Heartbeat then became a valuable resource as a Medical Officer here in Crystal City and it allowed her to work her way to the top, earning her the respect and acceptance of many of the locals here as well as her vaunted position as CMO.

"I'll take Scalpel with me and see what I can do." She replied after putting the datapad down. "Now was there anything else before I leave?"

"Found out some more about that Starscream debacle from several weeks back." Stakeout commented.

"And?"

"And…Galaxy brought him in and left him alone with Reignfire. Ended up bad for him with his apparent injuries when we found him."

Heartbeat stifled a guffaw. She knew the history between the two and knew Reignfire wouldn't have gone easy on him.

"What did you do with him afterwards?" She asked curiously, hoping he still wasn't anywhere in the Cyberian systems.

"We got Earthquake to fix the necessary parts while he was still offline then ditched him back on Earth." Stakeout replied.

"Well he better not turn up here again and not with any more Decepticons!" Heartbeat added angrily.

Stakeout was used to the short gruff temper of the Medic. "The nanovirus will hold, everyone else who has had that treatment, still has their blocks in place, and some of them have been gone from Cyberia for thousands of Earth's years."

"Will he remember anything though?" Heartbeat queried. "I'd rather not have any large amounts of dead, dying and injured here if they do find a way to get into the city and try to take it for their own."

"He won't be able to start a conversation with anyone about it or answer any question. Besides, if a Decepticon invasion does happen, I have faith that the Defence Force here in Cyberia will hold its own, we do take our military training here seriously."

"And what of that Autobot Leiutenant that I saw here with Vanguard. He wasn't a permitted visitor either." Heartbeat interjected.

"Oh him?" Stakeout laughed, "I wouldn't worry about that, Vanguard was just going through a rebellious spot and probably wanted at least one of the Autobots to know about our city just to tick off Shadow. Those two are always doing that to each other, they are each others own worst enemy but best friend as well. I find their antics at times amusing!"

Heartbeat asked. "And you didn't find it the slightest bit coincidental that both SIC's were here on the same day at the same time?"

"One thing I've learnt about situations like that is that if Primus has a reason for allowing events to transpire in such a way to appear coincidental, then we can only go with the flow and see what will follow. Now that the Autobots know about us, only time will tell before they all actually start coming down here instead of having just that one of them with an access pass to this city." Stakeout responded. "I would prefer to be optimistic and think of that as a good thing, as a gesture of future friendship between them and us. I know it's a weird trait for the Head of Security to have but I see too many that are like you," Heartbeat raises a brow a the femme, "No offense but, some of them just close off and forget that there will be a tomorrow."

"I may not have been in any Cybertronian wars Stakeout like you have but I have seen my fill of human ones. I do agree with you that there has to be hope or there will be no end to wars in general."

It was then that the two females were distracted by an alarm resounding in the halls of the hospital, mixed in with some shots being fired elsewhere.

Both femmes looked at each other before getting their respective staff on their communications systems.

Stakeout had come into the hospital with two of her offsiders, Renegade and Roulette and they were stationed downstairs till it was time to leave and complete the rest of their usual rounds with the Security Director. Upon hearing the disturbance coming from the science section of the hospital, they leapt into action without notifying their boss of the problem to try and help those in trouble first.

What they had told Stakeout when she had contacted them was that they had come across a gold mech trying to tear apart the hospital trying to get out in his confused, semi online state, many had been injured in that section already but those medical staff members who were still functional, were attending to it.

Heartbeat and Stakeout had raced to the other Security femmes' position to try and assist.

Trying to find cover amidst being fired upon, Heartbeat yelled, "This is why I don't want Decepticons in my hospital, they are nothing but trouble!"

"What?" Stakeout yelled back, "And miss out on all this fun!" She mused.

She received a foul look from Heartbeat who instead of showing her usual displeasure, just went back to working on her injured patient amidst the blasts flying overhead.

Stakeout was trying to manoeuvre the mech into a position that would allow her two team members to move from where they were pinned, and pull back to the safety of her position. She just about had him in that spot when she had another idea, if they were able to get him onto the portal bay pad in the foyer further down the hallway, then Stakeout could activate her emergency remote and send him straight to the Pens from here.

Once she started firing back at him and moved him back, she called to her offsiders to move and then they too started to join their boss in pushing him back to the portal pad and Stakeout activated the remote as soon as he was wholly on it.

Once all had finally calmed down, Heartbeat joined Stakeout in surveying the damage caused by the golden mech on his rampage.

"Sometimes she just goes way too far." Heartbeat said angrily.

"Shadow? But she wasn't even here?" Stakeout stated, picking up on Heartbeats reference.

Heartbeat didn't even bother to explain, she was used to the Security Director reading her thought processes. She vented heavily and then placed a hand over her optics and shook her head

Now.

It was pitch black and very dusty where he fell. The only light he had was the soft golden glow of his body in this dank and filthy place. He didn't like where he had been sent.

Not that he even knew where he was now. First he had been somewhere else, thinking he was in some kind of Autobot medical unit, he lashed out, not really knowing if that was where he was or not. Now he was here and didn't know where he was at all.

He found himself a dirty viewing screen that allowed him to look out over the landscape outside the dark room he was in.

What he saw wasn't much; it was some kind of dark and dirty city with buildings and apartments like this one all around, some in worse condition than the one he was in, some far better.

He scoffed and snorted his vents. He was just about to smash the window and be free of this room and go outside when he sensed the presence of another in the room.

When he turned around to look at the individual, he would have easily used his weapons and shot them but there was something familiar about him.

"You don't remember me do you?"

"I know you do I not?" Sunstorm tilted his head in curiosity, he knew this mech but he couldn't fathom who he was or where he remembered him from.

"Personally I think it was quite fortuitous of you to appear here at this time when I was close by and able to find you." The stranger grinned.

Earth.

"Are you sure this is such a good idea?" Asked a meek female voice.

"Of course it's a good idea, I mean I thought of it after all now didn't I? All my ideas are good." Prostrated another female.

"What Stella means Becky is that we had little choice." A third female interjected and glared at the arrogant blonde. "Someone had to come and find Bast and the rest. They've been gone for ages now and Dad can't spare the mech power to come find them himself. Things are strained enough at home because of the escalating conflict with the Dominion and all."

"An' ya think us comin' here will help?" A dark skinned female called Daphne asked. "When we get back home, they'll string us up, bein' AWOL an' all."

"Like that has ever stopped us before!" Commented a sly looking female named Gloria, smoking an expensive cigar. "At least they have some decent stuff to relax with in this time!" She grinned, "I wonder what else they have?"

"An' my idea t'go undercover as an all female band an' submit a demo track t'Deane Music helped, otherwise we wouldn't be here in this big spacious loft t'enjoy the perks of this age!" Daphne replied. "It's a leg up from that dingy warehouse we were in t'start with all our gear."

The blonde, Stella, snorted, unhappy that it hadn't been all her idea and that someone else was getting the acclaim for it. But she was happy at least that they had a place fit for her tastes. It wasn't home with all the perks she wanted, but at least it wasn't some dingy dirty place like they had been in to start with.

Gloria sighed and leapt down from her high perch above them and joined the rest on the couch. "At least this place is more comfortable than the last one."

"So what to do now? We came here and found ourselves something to earn money from in this century. And we live in this time while we look for them. I mean its bad enough that all our parents are in this time and we can't tell them who we are or where we are from if we should happen to run into them?" A young female called Becky asked.

"Ya think I don' have it easy?" Daphne answered. "My Ma' runs Deane Music an' I can't even say hi. Gotta pretend like I don' know 'er, yeah?"

Just then a clash of equipment being moved caught their attention. Another female called Cassandra, their technician, was moving about musical instruments to get something.

"Careful with all that ! It is all very expensive top of the range instrumentation from this time that I had to sell some fairly expensive vehicle parts to get."

"Primus forbid!" Daphne exclaimed. "Never thought I'd see th'day that ya'd stoop t'tha level of us common folk t'get what you want, especially sellin' ya precious gold plated rims to feed, cloth an' house us all while we are here in th'past!"

Stella looked like she was going to sob but then sighed. "Those rims were custom made and won't be easy to replace."

"Don't worry about it Stella. It was a necessary sacrifice to help us out for our mission here and that's all that matters." Libby was their team leader and had been the one to round them up to try and do something for their missing friends back in their own time to try and do something.

Libby was also worried about how they would be received back home when they did arrive, but they shouldn't need to worry about that till they did actually leave to go home. They had all come here on their own against their better judgement to do the right thing and try to bring their friends home. But being that all seven of them were Elite Guard soldiers of their respective cities Defence Forces, all of them hoped they wouldn't end up regretting making a rash decision in coming back to the past.

"You know?" Asked Gloria, "Has anyone thought about how we are going to get home again once we find who we're looking for?"

A few of them had indeed been thinking about how they would get back, but with all the settling into their undercover lifestyle in the 21st century and also looking for their friends, they had put aside the fact of how they would get home.

It wasn't that they didn't have a means to get back, but the time travel device they came back in time with became overtaxed and exploded shortly after they arrived, and was left in Gayle's care to fix with what components she could find in this day and age.

"Leave that one t'me!" Muses Daphne, "I have an idea I wanna follow up for that."

Cybertron.

Steelwind had to raise a browline at Megatron's actions. "You really think shoving a fully charged fusion cannon in my face is going to impress me?"

"Nothing would give me greater pleasure femme than to finally be rid of you." He answered. "Just like I got rid of most of the rest of your kind."

"Pleasure? For you, to get rid of me? Now I know you're joking!" And with that she began to chuckle. "Wouldn't you rather do it the old fashioned way?" She asked him, cracking the joints on her digits, "And have us a fist fight to see who's the strongest?" She grinned.

Megatron managed to stifle a guffaw, this femme was as he remembered her to be. She had as much the bearings to stand up to him as Optimus always did. "You have not changed at all, have you?" He said lowering his cannon.

Steel' kept grinning but she didn't have a chance to answer as a resounding explosion rocked the citadel from top to bottom.

Megatron figured he had made the wrong decision in allowing Starscream to stay with Shockwave to look into the other femme's structure and programming. He thought that with this explosion, his Air Commander was perhaps planning some kind of coup. "Shockwave report." He got onto his comms straight away to find out what the problem was.

When he received no answer he made a conscious choice to abandon his personal vendetta against the tall grey femme for now to go and ensure Starscream was not behind this.

Steelwind could tell he wasn't going to finish her off right now and so said to him, "Why don't you go and deal with your own problems. I will still be here when you are done!" She mused. She said what she did on purpose just to rile him and knew she was succeeding.

Megatron knew this also. Steelwind was one individual who could get under his chassis more easily than Starscream ever could, all because she did so with flair and amusement just to annoy him. She had been doing it that way ever since he knew her from his earlier days when he was working in the mining colonies, and at other times in his life afterwards.

When he left in a huff, she just went back to sitting down and waiting for him to return again.

Elsewhere.

Shockwave was only just beginning to stir.

What had happened was something he had not expected, something that he did not think was entirely possible. The femme apparently had her own self destruct programming to stop anyone from getting their digits upon her system inadvertantly. He had seen it nanoseconds before the explosion had happened and had thankfully ducked in time, leaving Starscream to a worse fate.

He remembered as he was going through the femme's cerebral programming protocols when he came across something rather interesting. Some time ago, he had been experimenting upon a young femme captive in the hopes of creating a weapon he could use as a last resort against Megatron if all else failed.

Back then something had happened and the youngling had somehow escaped and disappeared completely, which was rather unfortunate at the time due to the fact many of the young female's programs were irreplaceable.

But when he had been going through this adult femme's programs, he thought he recognised a few code lines here and there. Codes he himself had written specifically for certain functions for that young femme at that time.

When the femme had been lost back then, he had changed his plans and instead goaded Megatron into destroying all the femmes they could get their hands on, either Autobot or Decepticon so his escaped experiment could be eliminated and his secret plan covered up.

"What in the blazes!" Exclaimed Starscream as he had started to come online again.

He too had been caught in the sudden and unexplainable explosion which had, as he looked around, destroyed a rather large portion of Shockwave's main laboratory. Not that he cared; it would take his rival out of favour with Megatron for some time.

He hadn't moved far. For the most part, the room was covered in debris and a fire had started somewhere. The room was full of black smoke from a lot of the chemicals burning from a nearby chemistry lab.

It was then that Starscream saw it. It was a hulking black form, someone taller than he was, someone taller than his Commander. He could not make out who it was in the smoke, but he knew it wasn't Megatron as it was black. He chanced a glance back at the table the femme had been strapped to and saw that she was no longer tied down, her metal clasps all been ripped apart as far as he could see, he automatically assumed it was her.

When she finally emerged from the smoke, she looked like she was searching for something. Starscream was not going to just sit around and be set upon by this femme if she should decide to attack him, but he could not move, at least not very far.

Being that he was at the epicentre of the explosion when it went off, he received some dire injuries. One of his mid leg joints was shattered and the other upper leg section was torn open from shrapnel, preventing him from using that leg to get himself up.

He decided not to make any noise, so the femme would go after Shockwave first, and give him some recovery time. He looked over at Shockwave quickly as the female began to make her way over to him.

Just as she picked the Military Commander up to do something to him, several soldiers came bursting in guns blazing in response to the alarm going off, going straight to Shockwave's aid like the loyal soldiers they were.

While one or two went after the fire in the chemistry lab, a few others went for the femme. Starscream watched as she dispatched and took them down with ease.

He had never seen anyone with a weapon like what she had. She had a device that was retracted from her right hand and forearm and upon using it, it literally sucked the energy and spark right out of the mech she was attacking.

In fear of her attacking him that way, he tried to activate his arm guns, but one was crushed and the other ripped off and across the floor. As he scrambled as much as he could to try and get it, the femme had already dealt with the other mechs and had now come to deal with him.

He had not been able to scramble over to his gun in time and was dreading her attack. "You can't destroy me, I'm too important. I…"

The femme turned her attention from his whinging to something else. She sniffed the air as if to recognise more prey elsewhere then left him alone suddenly, charging out the open doorway to somewhere else.

Starscream vented a cycle of air. He was relieved. Not that he believed in Primus, but he felt he had been granted another day to live and plot against Megatron and serve the Decepticon cause.

He scrambled back over to where he was and propped himself up against the wall to begin working on his legs to get them functional again.

By that time Shockwave had actually gotten himself up and instead of inquiring to how Starscream was doing with his limb repairs, he went straight to his diagnostic computer or what was left of it, and tried to access it, seeing how much damage the explosion had done.

Meanwhile Starscream was silently grinning to himself. As he was trying to plead to the femme, he caught sight of something red glimmering from inside her chest casing.

At first he couldn't explain what it was, but then the specific shape and glow reminded him of something the Autobot Leader had and it made him grin about an old legend he had once heard of, and it gave him some ideas. If it was indeed what he thought it to be, then he would have no problems using it to take over leadership of the Decepticons from Megatron. Now all he had to do was to get his digits on it.

While he had been thinking and plotting away he had not heard Megatron waltz in quietly.

"You had better hope that this had nothing to do with you Starscream." He bellowed flatly, eying off the Air Commander.

As Starscream started to demand his innocence, Megatron ignored him and went over to get a report from Shockwave.

Shockwave had in the meantime thought better of telling Megatron that the femme may be a lost project of his, just in case his old hidden plan might ever be discovered, or that he may be able to capture his weapon again and reactivate it. But first he had to find out for sure if this femme was the one and for that he would need to get hold of her again.

Once he had realised his computer was now dead, he instead contacted his security team to go out and capture the femme.

"Well Shockwave, what happened here?" Megatron demanded.

"My apologies Lord Megatron. In my zeal to accomplish your directive, I'm afraid I neglected to put certain safety protocols in place when exploring the cerebral programming of the femme. It appears she had an inbuilt self destruct program to prevent anyone from interfering with or investigating the nature of her programming core in detail." He responded.

Starscream mumbled something under his vocals but Megatron ignored him and asked Shockwave, "And what of the programming code lines I had asked you to retrieve from her?"

"Unless we recapture her and have another chance to retrieve them, then I am sorry to say, it may be difficult due to that program. If they are there within her programming core, then we will need more time and more secure methods in place for our plans."

Megatron knew Shockwave wasn't all that prone to openly backstabbing and deceiving him as Starscream was. But the Military Commander was still prone to certain activities, not all though, he was aware of, but still he was easier to read than his Air Commander and knew how to get Shockwave to go where he wanted him to.

"Make sure that you do have the proper safety protocols in place next time and have your soldiers recapture her. Use Skywarp and Thundercracker if you must. I am going to go and take care of something." Megatron turned to leave and he looked down upon Starscream as he walked out the door.

Starscream looked up at him pitifully. He was on the floor up against a wall with no means of trying to escape, being that his legs still didn't work. He was at his Leaders mercy. He cringed, ready to receive that blow he was expecting. But it didn't come.

Megatron ordered him, "And you, when you get your legs fixed, I expect you to join the rest of us and help recapture this femme."

He vented a sign of relief as Megatron left and quietly went back to fixing himself, feeling lucky once again that he had dodged yet another laser blast.

Elsewhere in the Darkmount Citadel.

A small team of Autobots and some others had infiltrated the Decepticon stronghold through a secret access tunnel shown to them by Galaxy.

On account of the fact they had arrived right when all the trouble was starting, they had decided to split into two teams to find the femmes.

One headed towards to action to see what was going on. This team consisted of Jazz, Sideswipe and Galaxy.

While the other team went towards the dungeons where they knew prisoners were kept. This was where Hot Rod, Ranger and Wheeljack headed.

Steelwind had gone back to meditating, fully expecting Megatron to turn up yet again and threaten her life.

But she was taken out of her reverie by the unexpected arrival of an old friend; someone whom she never thought would ever set ped inside a Decepticon stronghold ever again.

"Well aren't you just a sight for sore optics!" She mused.

"This is neither the time nor the place Steelwind. I am only here on Cybertron to retrieve my daughter, and then I am returning home. I am giving you the choice to come with me or I will leave you behind." The other femme stated.

Steelwind knew how shrewd and to the point Mainframe could be, just as she was herself. But the dark blue femme had more patience than she had. And so she made no more comments and simply got up and held her hands out in front of her.

Mainframe was just like her daughter in a way. She could manipulate the molecular particles of anything around her. But where Alchemist's abilities were mainly physical, hers were also somewhat mental and spiritual. Mainframe had received Archeon training, but the dark blue femmes training was more advanced, a level higher than most others as it had come directly from an Archeon and so it was very easy for her to wave her hand in such an easy manner and watch as the chains all slid from Steelwind's chassis and the energy bars holding her captive went out and crumbled to dust.

"One of these cycles I will have to learn that trick!" Steelwind mused. She picked up what was left of the chains, thinking to use them for another time and stepped out of the cell, subspacing the chains that had once had her captive.

"Perhaps. But for now, let us just depart." Mainframe answered.

Steelwind had no time to complain about the fact she disliked teleportation, as it threw her sensors out of whack. Before she uttered a sound, she was whisked off in Mainframe's energy wave of transportation to somewhere else in the citadel.


	20. Chapter 20

*Part 20*

"Ugh." Commented Steelwind as she got her bearings after being teleported with Mainframe. "Remind me again why I put up with that?"

Mainframe ignored her old friends comment and instead looked around her for confirmation that they had reached their destination.

"So where are we? You'll have t'forgive me for askin' mate, but it's been a hell of a long time since I went sightseein' on Cybertron an' all?" Mainframe did not have a chance to answer Steelwind's question. "Hey wait, this is Darkmount ain't it?"

"Yes it is, and right at this moment, Shadow is making sheet metal out of those Decepticons currently upon this base." Mainframe finally answered.

"Really? Well then, she's doing our job for us. We should just go and leave 'er to it then!" Steelwind mused.

Mainframe gave her a flat look.

"Why are y'complainin' for? They're the same lot who tried to have all us femmes killed y'know, Shadow's doin' us a favour!"

Mainframe humphed.

Steelwind just shrugged in response to the soldier.

Mainframe paid no further attention to Steelwind; instead she scanned around the corridors for where she wanted to go. "There are others here in the citadel. Several Autobots and some of the companions you came to Cybertron with."

"Great. Then we won't have t'rescue 'em. They won't be at risk from Shadow's rampage, she only lashes out at 'Cons when she's like this, though once she's had her fill o'their energy, she'll stop."

"And you think that is reason enough to allow her to drain all those Cybertronians, all those Decepticons? Steelwind, the Autobots may be in the middle of a war with them but it still doesn't give us the right to decide that they have to die and deserve what Shadow is currently doing." Mainframe exclaimed. "Termination as a warrior is more honourable than being drained of all their energon and then tossed aside by a hungry monster."

"I'm fine with whatever Shadow wants t'do t'all those mech Deceps' bar Megatron. It would certainly take care of 'em. Keep 'em quiet for a bit." Steelwind snickered. Mainframe once again glared at the big grey femme. "Ok fine!" Steelwind huffed and threw her arms up, "Let's go rescue some lousy 'Cons from some big scary black monster 'cause some ol' femme is gettin' all sentimental like 'bout life an' stuff, geez!" She exclaimed loudly and sarcastically.

Mainframe didn't appreciate the ridicule from Steelwind, but she was used to it from the other femme and knew it was just her way of venting her annoyance. She looked over several corridors that were in front of them and indicated one to follow, and off they went down the adjoining corridor to find their quarry.

Skywarp was keeping cover behind some debris that had fallen from the roof of a large cavern in the citadel.

He was having a hard time fending off the monster that had been chasing himself and Thundercracker around for the last cycle or so trying to get at them.

All around them lay the bodies of fallen comrades, who were either terminated or had been mostly sucked dry of all their energon.

"Come on 'Warp!" Called Thundercracker from up above him. "We have to get out of here."

"But what about the boss?" The other Seeker asked.

Megatron had been with them in the same cavern. Both of the Seekers had stayed behind when Megatron had finally come to them, hoping that their Commander would easily defeat the beast or at least slow it down so they could have their turn with a distinct advantage.

But with all the debris scattered around the place, Thundercracker had surmised that the roof of the cavern wouldn't last too much longer. "Our Commander can look after himself Skywarp, for now we had best get to high ground because this won't be a pleasant place to be when the roof finally goes." He commented as he could hear the roof struts finally start to groan under the damage already caused it.

Megatron had noticed this too and right before the beast was going to tackle and down him again, he fired his antigravs and got out of the way right before the roof came down, joining the two other Seekers who were just hovering there waiting.

"Did we finally get it Sir?" Asked Thundercracker.

Megatron grimaced. Under all that rubble were offline soldiers of his. All they needed to have was energon, to bring them all out of self induced stasis locks, but unfortunately his fight with the beast had just buried both it and his offline soldiers under everything.

In Megatron's logic, his soldiers had braved a willing sacrifice for the Decepticon cause to be buried along with the monster.

Megatron turned on the two Seekers and ordered, "Go find that useless scrap Starscream and tell him to get off his aft and start organising a clean up to get rid of all this rubble, or at the very least, find out the whereabouts of the Constructicons and tell them to come and attend to this."

"Yes Sir." Thundercracker answered quietly. Skywarp at once transformed and flew off to another part of the citadel to find Starscream. Thundercracker however lingered for a few moments and looked over the rubble pile.

"What are you waiting for Thundercracker; you have orders to carry out." Megatron bellowed.

Thundercracker didn't utter a vocal; he instead transformed straight away and flew off after Skywarp.

Megatron lingered a look at the rubble for some time before moving. _'I know you're still down there monster. Having fought you for the last cycle, I know that you are tougher than this. Even Optimus Prime could withstand this.'_

His prayers were answered when part of the rubble pile began to move and Megatron smiled. It may not be Optimus Prime, but it was certainly a challenge to test his skills, and that's all he cared about, something worthy of his superiority in combat.

As the mechanical beast emerged from the rubble it shook off all its extra weight and roared a challenge to the heavens, a challenge that Megatron gladly accepted.

Elsewhere in the citadel.

The two teams of the rescuers had met up and were discussing the conditions they continued to find all around them.

"Well I can't say that whatever happened here was a bad thing!" Wheeljack mused.

"Yeah." Jazz added. "Somethin' 'ere did a real number on 'em."

"Then they won't be bothering us for a while. With any luck whatever is attacking them might finish them all off." Sideswipe interrupted.

"Where's the fun in that?" Hot Rod commented. "There'll be no one to fight?"

"Damn, he's got a point too." Sideswipe reasoned rubbing his chin in thought.

Ranger was quietly wandering all around the room, kneeling here and there, looking at the various scratches on the walls and the tracks in amongst various spots of rubble the group kept finding as they had first checked out possible areas where the two femmes they were after, would be.

"We have yet to find Steelwind and Shadow." Galaxy commented.

"Then look no further." Steelwind proudly proclaimed with her arms out, coming around a corner to surprise everyone.

"How did you get out?" Ranger asked.

Steelwind looked behind her and a dark blue figure walked out of the shadows to show herself.

"Whoah," Hot Rod commented. "She looks like an older version of that other dark blue femme we just met." Sideswipe nodded along with him.

"I am Mainframe." The femme responded ignoring Hot Rod's comment, "And the other dark blue femme you would have recently met would be my offspring, Alchemist."

Jazz had been over with Ranger looking at some tracks and scrapes with her and advised the others of which way they should go.

"Okay okay, let's get goin' an' save these poor little 'Cons from extinction at the hands of some nasty little black monster." Steelwind commented sarcastically once again as she wandered off with Galaxy and Ranger close behind.

Wheeljack sidled up to Mainframe as they were walking and asked, "What does she mean, 'little black monster'?"

Steelwind heard what Wheeljack had asked and was loathe to tell any of them the full story about what was going on, but felt they at least deserved to know the basics about it and decidedly left other information out of the explanation for her own reasons.

She called back, "When Shadow's energy levels become depleted or someone attempts to access her programmin' without 'er approval or somethin' else, she resorts to more drastic measures to protect 'erself. Changes inta' th'beastie and starts drainin' energies of certain mechanoid types she can get 'old of, namely the 'Cons." She looked around at all the offline Decepticons bodies around them, "Well, you get the idea."

"You mean to tell me she's some kind of whack job vampire?" Sideswipe questioned as he rubbed the fuel lines in his neck cables, "And you're leading us to go and get her?"

"She favours Decepticon fuel." Galaxy reminded them.

"Why's that?" Jazz asked.

"It has to do with her programming and mechanical physiology." Ranger replied.

"Kinda strange?" Jazz commented.

Galaxy told the group. "This corridor leads to a rather large antechamber that was often used for special occasions." And she walked ahead of them with her guns in hand and ready to fire if they came across any trouble.

But so far they hadn't come across any, and this worried some of them.

Soon they came upon the antechamber and discovered why.

"Aww, she's havin' all the fun!" Steelwind joked.

"He's just one Decepticon. It won't be that hard getting the femme away from him long enough to escape." Hot Rod commented bravely.

"That's the prob' Roddy, when that one Decep' is Megatron, its one Decep' too many." Jazz answered.

"So how are we going to do this?" Wheeljack asked. Like the rest he was enthralled by the one on one battle that Megatron was having with a black monster standing its ground against the big grey Decepticon Commander very fervently. Megatron even seemed to be enjoying himself.

Jazz was about to answer when he noticed Galaxy staring off into another direction. "I think we need t'worry 'bout those three at the moment." He pointed and saw three Seekers watching the battle below from up above.

Steelwind looked up at them from their somewhat hidden spot. "Well it seems they haven't noticed us yet so…" She looked at the rest of them, "I'll take care o' Shadow an' the rest o'ya provide a distraction so I can get Shadow and get outta here…"

Steelwind was interrupted by the arrival of Skywarp suddenly appearing.

"What? You think we didn't notice you Auto-scraps cowering in fear down here from us?" Starscream prostrated from up above.

Skywarp managed to grab Galaxy and had her firmly around the midsection in a tight grip. She wasn't squirming as she knew full well who her captor was, but for the moment, she also had an advantage and she took a chance. Bracing her peds on the ground she leapt up into the air with all the power the spring bracers in her lower legs would allow in an attempt to throw her brother off and get away from the rest of the crowd.

Starscream wasn't all that bothered by the unknown and unmarked, big grey femme that had left the group on her own. He was only interested at the moment in the Autobot soldiers shooting at him, as was Thundercracker.

And nor did the Autobots happen to notice when Steelwind disappeared from view.

And then the shooting gallery began.

Skywarp as much as he wanted to join the battle and whip some Autobot afts, he wanted to talk to his sister to find out what was going on with her.

Once she had gotten away from him, she had deftly landed on a ridge not far from the battle that was now going on. She could see all of them in one direction as well as a green and purple construction crew doing some clean up work not too far from them elsewhere.

Being that she recognised them, she sent a private message to Steelwind, who acknowledged her information.

Then she turned her attention to the purple Seeker who landed not far from her.

"All I want to know is why?" He demanded. "Why didn't you tell me you were still functional? And why aren't you on our side" She could fell the betrayal in his vocals, but did not care either way.

"It would not have changed anything." Galaxy answered.

Skywarp's attention was also being continually distracted from the sounds of battle nearby and Galaxy could tell he was itching to get into the fray and do his part against the Autobots, but she wanted to do her part and keep him distracted.

Elsewhere, Jazz had been driving around to avoid as much of Starscream's null ray shots as he could.

"Stop moving and stand still Autobot, so I can kill you." He roared.

"What? An' make it easy for ya t'learn how t'shoot! Not likely!" Jazz mused.

This made Starscream mad and the Seeker transformed and roared his engines after him in pursuit.

Thundercracker was having a hard time shooting his targets also. While he was being distracted by Hot Rod, Sideswipe and Wheeljack had other ideas.

"Where's the other red one?" He asked as Hot Rod streaked past him on the ground.

"What other red one?" Hot Rod replied innocently, knowing full well that the red Lamborghini was up to something.

Meanwhile Wheeljack had found himself a few weapons that had been dropped by the offline Decepticons that were lying around. He and Sideswipe had made a plan with Hot Rod so he could act as a distraction for the seeker so they could gather the items and use them against Thundercracker.

The blue seeker was taken completely by surprise by an airborne weapon that hit its target, making Thundercracker crash to the ground after it had damaged not only his thrusters, but also his ability to transform fully and land safely.

Hot Rod returned to where Wheeljack and Sideswipe had been hiding themselves and gave them both a high five for the plan. As soon as they had taken care of one Seeker, they now plotted to take down another and looked to Starscream as their next target.

Jazz had recently joined them due to the fact he was running out of ammunition and had radioed back to base for backup in case it was needed. As caretaker of this little group, he had to follow protocol. Due to the fact they were deep in Decepticon territory, it may not be an easy feat to get out of there alive and functional.

"Has anyone seen th'femmes?" Jazz asked, noticing that they had not helped the Autobots in any way since the affray between them and the Seekers had started.

Hot Rod spoke up, "The purple one, whatever her name was, is over there fighting Skywarp, and the rest I haven't seen at all since that grey one went running off."

Elsewhere.

Steelwind and Ranger had managed to get as far away from the Autobots as they could with Mainframe's help. And as soon as the dark blue femme had dropped them off, she had departed herself.

"Would have been good if she'd stayed, could'o helped get anyone out when the slag'll hit the fan."

"So you realise that you will have to take the mantle from her then?" Ranger chastised.

"Don't wanna, but gonna have ta, don' I?" Steelwind responded reluctantly.

"The Chaos Matrix is your mantle, and is your responsibility?" Ranger chided again.

Without looking at her, Steelwind answered, "Okay fine I get the point. Y'know already why I left that thing to Shadow to look after, it likes her as much as it likes me. The 'Cons' must'o tried t'fiddle with her programmin' an that's why it taken over and runnin' amok. An' I'm already aware o'the fact th'council sent Mainframe to get me to take care of it myself." She stopped, sighed and thought to herself, _'Why did I bother t'volunteer t'become guardian o'that cursed thing t'begin with if they knew it was goin' t'be this much trouble?'_ She looked at Ranger, "You should know that as soon as I take control o'that thing, its goin' t'start more trouble."

"Yes I am well aware of that fact also." Ranger replied.

Steelwind grinned, "So they sent you along too eh?"

Ranger nodded, "Galaxy aswell, to act as backup should you not be able to take care of what is needed."

"Figures." Steelwind mumbled to herself. Just now she spotted the opportunity she needed. "Well here goes nothin'!"

Shadow in her dragon like form was relatively beating the scrap out of Megatron, but he wasn't giving in. His ego wouldn't let him. At one stage he had been tossed aside and far enough out of site that Steelwind could quickly come down the embankment where she and Ranger had been hidden from view and make a grab for what she needed to take care of.

Autobot base.

Somewhere in Iacon, Optimus Prime had just returned from defending a garrison close by and was attempting to file his battlefield report, but the concern his bondmate was feeling right now was bleeding through their sparkbond and it was becoming a distraction and so he decided to go and see if he could be of any help to her and leave aside his report for later.

When he came upstairs, he looked along the corridor ahead of him to find her looking out one of the viewing screens in the main gallery that allowed views of the outside perimeter of Iacon from inside the facility.

She allowed herself to vent out and it was clear there was something worrying her. Optimus could tell by the expression on her faceplate also, he didn't need any bleed through emanations from their sparkbond for that.

"Is there anything I should be concerned about?" He asked openly.

He realised that she was staring off into the direction of Darkmount and also knew that there was something going on there. Jazz and his team were in that area and he had sent Ultra Magnus and a team along when Jazz had called for back up.

"I don't feel terribly comfortable with what is going on there right now, something is not right?"

He wondered if he should mention his concerns about how the energies of the Matrix were playing up and also wondered if it was connected to her worry about what was currently going on around Darkmount.

"Perhaps I should have gone myself instead of sending Magnus." He knew how worried she could get over certain intuitive matters that she did not feel well about when situations like this arose. He was now interested in seeing if this situation was connected.

He lightly gripped her shoulder struts in support and she leant into him, grateful for the comfort.

"Don't worry for me please," She said as she placed one of her hands over his. "While I do not like what is going on, I am sure Jazz, Magnus and the others will be able to handle it."

"I still think I should have gone myself, if you think something is not right then we should attend to it personally."

Elita sighed, "I do not think we need to be there right now."

Optimus finally decided to listen to her and go back to his work downstairs.

Yes, she was upset about something and there was not much he could do about it. She always had the gift or foresight and often when she had these feelings or visions, events were going to happen whether they liked it or not. She knew what was happening there only she had declined to inform him of what exactly.

Perhaps it was for the best that they were not directly involved. Both Jazz and Ultra Magnus were capable leaders in their own right and could look after themselves and their teams, considering that both teams were deep in Decepticon territory.

As he sat down in his office chair he leaned back and sighed. He just hoped that it would all work out.

Darkmount.

The Autobots had barely been able to get away from the blast radius of the explosion in time. Had it not been for the pre-emptive warning from the strange femmes, Galaxy and Ranger, then they would have just been where everything had just gotten obliterated as the explosion had left an almighty hole right in the middle of the edge of the Darkmount tower and expanded around one side of it for some distance.

They were now taking refuge in an old abandoned building, outside the edge of the blast radius, which afforded them some privacy as well as insulation from detection by the Decepticons.

Sideswipe was looking out towards the tower and commented, "Well, that will keep them occupied for quite a while!"

"What will?" Wheeljack asked in between trying to fix Hot Rod's busted leg joint.

"That…well whatever that was that we had to run from, just took out part of the tower and a sizeable area right next to it. "Cons'r gonna be busy for a while fixing it. They might even leave us alone for a bit, so we can recover, forget about us completely or something." Sideswipe had some of his own battle injuries he was favouring, burnt out wires in his left ped joint was preventing him from moving it normally and so he was limping and he also had a gashed fuel line that Wheeljack had already sealed, but had left fuel all down his other leg. Neither injury were terribly comfortable, and Wheeljack couldn't find anything to use to replace the burnt out wires from amongst the junk in this hiding area, so Sideswipe had to put up with it.

"Shame Jazz couldn't join us on that one." Hot Rod lamented.

In unison, they all glanced over at the saboteur. He had taken the brunt of the blast when they had tried to escape. Sideswipe and Hot Rod had already hightailed it ahead of them and Jazz had used himself to protect Wheeljack on purpose, right when the blast wave had first hit, knowing the scientist would be needed to fix them if things went south like they had.

Hot Rod and Sideswipe had been caught up in the blast also, but the worst they received were superficial injuries that could be fixed. Unfortunately for Jazz, Wheeljack would have to wait until help arrived to fix him. Luckily help was on the way, they would just have to hole themselves up until it came.

"He'll recover won't he 'Jack?" Sideswipe asked.

"He always does!" Came back the cool reply from the scientist, "Most of his rear armour plating will need replacing, there doesn't appear to be any permanent damage underneath, nothing is leaking, but he shock of so much pain to his system from the damaged armour has shut him down." Both of them gave him a look that told him he was prattling on. As he rubbed his helm, he said, "Ah, he'll be fine eventually."

Outside.

Galaxy and Ranger had been surveying the area to ensure that it was safe.

They had discussed the matter previously with Wheeljack, considering he had been the only other able bodied mechanoid at the time, and he was needed to fix and look over the others, so both the femmes had readily volunteered for watch duty. They had only done so, for an opportunity to see what was going on between Steelwind and the Decepticons nearby without their watch been interfered with or questioned by any Autobots.

"I did not think that she would so willingly take it back." Galaxy commented as they were quietly and stealthily making their way towards the commotion.

"Well she is as unpredictable as the orb she is supposed to be protecting. My guess is that the Council thought that if they sent Mainframe along to give her a nudge, then she might take the bait. Though right now I'm not sure what's going to happen." Ranger replied.

Like some others in the inner circle of their little group, they were both members of the Circle of Light and both were dedicated warriors and servants of Cyberia. They did not openly serve the Head Council of Cyberia like Mainframe did, but they did listen to requests and chose whether or not to take action that was necessary, when requests were made.

"What do you think may happen now that the Autobots and Decepticons have been drawn into this?"

"We will do as we have always done, deal with everything as it comes."

"Shadow's philosophy?"

"Well, yes and no. That has been in place for a rather long time for those of us who are old enough to remember. Shadow just adopted it because it suited her purposes."

Galaxy knew Ranger was referring to herself in one part. Ranger may look like a young femme on the outside but her true age did not show. She was dedicated to following the principles of the Circle and so her age had slowed somewhat, allowing her inner mechanisms to last longer and withstand more interaction with her environment, making her appear younger than what she actually was.

Galaxy was generally not an emotional femme, but she did see that fact as a rather useful ability to have to deceive your enemies when it was needed. While she did not fully follow the principles herself as she had not been fully initiated into the Circle as yet, but she still admired the other femme for her usefulness when it was needed as a result of Ranger's dedication to what she believed in, a fact that she would never openly say to her faceplate.

She had allowed herself to become distracted from the matter at hand when Ranger indicated they had found what they wanted to see.

Off in the distance was a writhing ball of energy. That was starting to collapse in the air, revealing the extent of the damage its initial blast had done. Everything in the immediate area around the ball had been completely obliterated. Further and further out, less and less damage had been done but most of the area was flattened. It was in these areas that the two femmes and the Autobots had been made to run for cover and become injured.

Galaxy noticed that Ranger was staring rather intently at the energy. Ranger knew what the energy was and told Galaxy that it was just the orb readjusting itself to a new bearer. As this transition had been done forcibly, it was just the orbs energies acting out. Ranger had seen it done to others in the past when certain orbs had been needed to change owners on occasion when the previous bearer was still functional and the orbs didn't want to be moved.

They both watched on as the energies began to clear and an outline of dragon like armour could be seen being worn by an individual hovering in mid air. The individual vented in and out, slowly getting itself used to its new power levels.

Above.

Steelwind had not wanted to take possession of the orb, but in this case it was necessary, she had her reasons for leaving it with Shadow, but that femme lost control and something needed to be done.  
She just did not like wearing it. She was essentially now a good sparked individual, originally something much worse, who had spent a long time working towards the person she was now, but she, like everyone, had a dark side, that was still very much present in the back of her mind, and this orb fed on it. When she wore the orb in her spark chamber, her darker, more chaotic side chose more often than not, to rear its face and it was a struggle for her to keep it under wraps especially with her often gregarious nature.

Going into it, she knew that the chaos orb would willingly change bearers if it was her doing the taking, but it did not come so quietly, it never did.

She switched on her optics and surveyed the damage to the surrounding area. She smirked at the damage to the Decepticon citadel but that smirk faded when she set her optics upon Megatron and two of the Seekers, one of them carrying a third blue one.

At first Steelwind saw a somewhat puzzled look on Megatron faceplate when he noticed it was her wearing the armour that was previously being worn by someone else. Then his mechanisms set in motion another train of thought.

She realised too late what that thought was going to be. He was going to use it as another opportunity for him to be rid of her.

Megatron called out, "Seekers, Constructicons, destroy that femme and bring her terminated body back to me in however condition you deem fit."

The Constructicons saw this as an opportunity to gain more favour and Steelwind already knew they were in the area, being that Galaxy had already notified her. She just didn't think that she would be fighting them one on one as Devastator.

"Slag!" Steelwind murmured to herself. "Now what've I gotten m'self into?"

Elsewhere.

More or less the Autobots were just staying out of the way now until their crew turned up as they'd received word that Ultra Magnus and a few others were coming to help them out and get them home.

All of their little group except for Wheeljack had been injured and were low on ammunition. Hot Rod was still laying down due to his leg injuries but was curious as to the noise, "What's going on out there 'Swipe?"

Sideswipe couldn't help but be amused when he looked out over the landscape and saw the Constructicons fighting with the black monster now. "Hey that dragon beast thing is fighting Devastator all alone!"

"Really? Let me take a look." Wheeljack joins him to see, after looking he comments, "I don't know why would anyone even want to go up against Devastator alone like that?" Then he spies something else, "Hey isn't that Ranger?"

The green and yellow femme was running along the ground very quickly with something in her arms away from the affray, while the other purple femme, Galaxy was strafing not too far overhead in her jet mode, acting as a shield, covering Ranger with shots being fired from Skywarp up above at both of the femmes.

Galaxy was able to distract Skywarp long enough to let Ranger get away safely and allow the Autobots to stay hidden, whom were close by. Now all she had to do was keep Skywarp occupied and that wouldn't be hard to do considering he know had a rather nasty grudge against her.

"Where'd she go?" Sideswipe commented.

"Right behind you." Ranger answered, surprising them.

"Well at least you two are alright." Wheeljack said worriedly. We thought that you may have been caught up in the fighting that's just started up out there."

She came over towards Sideswipe and looked out the little portal they had from within their hiding place, laying down what she was carrying, gently onto a makeshift bench to the side.

She could see Galaxy still flying around, making her brother waste his ammunition and also lead him away from their hiding spot.

"Hey what's with the kid?" Sideswipe asked from behind them.

Ranger had wrapped her package up so it could not be seen when she had retrieved it from outside not so long ago. She did, so that it could not be seen and hope it would stay offline till she could get it away from the battle, somewhere safe.

The young sparkling that had been wrapped up in the material had managed to bring itself back online again and uncover itself and was looking around the room with a scowl on its faceplate.

"I was hoping she would stay offline till I could get her out of the way, but it seems I underestimated her recovery speed." Ranger commented.

She thought that without the possession of the chaos orb, Shadow would revert back to her usual adult self, staying offline for quite some time before recovering as she usually did. Seeing her in this sparkling state was a shock to begin with but she knew who it was due to the femme's spark signature, only time would tell if everything else was normal or had changed along with her form.

Ranger knelt down in front of her. "Hello?" She asked. The young femme gave her a look like she didn't understand and tilted her head curiously. Ranger lowered her head and exclaimed, "Oh! Can you understand me now?" The young femme nodded. " Do you mind sitting still for me while my friend here gives you a check over to make sure you are alright?" She asked.

The femme shook her head and refused, indicating that she did mind and instead of sitting still as asked, she burst forward and found herself a way to get up and look out the small window they had in their hiding spot.

They all watched as she managed to get up to the high spot that was at optic level for the taller mechs. She was intent to see what all the noise was outside.

She turned her head around and indicated to Ranger to come and have a look, as new people had arrived and had started to shoot at the big green mechanoid that was fighting a smaller black one.

Wheeljack looked out the small window to see, but he had already recognised the blast signatures of certain weapons beforehand. "Looks like our rescue party is here." He said, venting a sigh of relief.


	21. Chapter 21

*Part 21*

She just sat there and remembered the past.

The very same people she had helped so much as a civilian in the past, were now the very same she was being detained as a criminal by.

This was not new to her.

She had spent a very long time working on all sorts of different ways to redeem herself. Not that she was guilty of anything by Cybertronian laws. She just didn't care what they accused her of, she didn't care what anyone accused her of anymore really.

Some people just get to a point within themselves where it doesn't matter anymore and so she had let herself get taken in by that detachment. She hadn't even fought against one of them once yet. And because she had taken no action, it had made them anxious. They wanted to know what was happening and she wouldn't tell them.

She didn't have much on her mind except the past.

She remembered many things, including the one now in front of her when he was younger.

They had been staring at each other for many a breem already and neither side was prepared to give an inch either way.

Despite her easy going and laid back nature, Steelwind was the master of stubbornness. She was also considerably patient and could wait for however long it took to get what she wanted when it was needed. Right now though, she was neither intimidated by the mech in front of her, staring her down, nor was she worried about the position she was in, so she just sat back, relaxed and waited.

After the battle with Devastator, she had silently admitted to herself at the time that the combiner was more than she could handle on her own with the energy reserves she had. She had sworn to herself for going all out and not keeping any backup reserve energy. The item she had taken from Shadow had not yet adjusted to her completely and she had still been using most of her own energies for combat, despite the orb giving her added protective armour.

One of the other reasons she had allowed herself to be taken was to buy her time, to cycle down her systems and allow it to recharge.

And now she was sitting with a mech across from her at a table being questioned, and so far she had not uttered a word. She just sat back in the chair she had been provided with the light noise of the energy pulsing coming from her body shackles, being the only sound made in this featureless detention room.

The silence could be considered somewhat deafening if one wanted to see it that way.

Not only was this frustrating to the mech doing the questioning. He wanted her to explain what was going on. These things from the past, she didn't have the slightest of interest in at the present moment.

The governing agents of the Council that were controlling the Autobot soldiers for the most part then had forced her off Cybetron under false accusations and it seemed those crimes were still on the record books after all this time.

What had transpired back then, was around the time that corrupt behaviour from the ruling Council had been exposed and she had been part of that group doing the exposing and questioning their behaviour and their overactive need to control. She like many others had either been hunted down and terminated as criminals or labelled as traitors or had their records permanently marked as a result if they got away. This was all due to the efforts of the Council to cover up what was going on amongst them so they could stay in control of the population.

This had all been happening around the time of the rise of Megatron and the formation of the Decepticons and she had been marked as a member of their cause as a result of her actions, despite the actions being completely independant, just because all she had done was stand up to the Council. The thing she found funny was that she had never had a membership within the ranks of the Decepticons, nor had she considered it.

"This would all go a lot smoother if you just start talking." The mech stated.

Steelwind just lounged back in her chair and waited for her somewhat idle systems to finish charging back up again.

She remembered this mech. When she still on Cybertron in the past, he was a young up and coming who was favoured by the council for his loyalty to their cause. She had to laugh to herself. For a faction as good as the Autobots, even it had its delusional and blindsided individuals. He was certainly by the book, not that it mattered to her.

She was glad she had left when she did, not that she didn't have a good business as a merchant and freighter going and could live off world away from Cybertron. It just may have been the only good thing she ever did to help others back then and it landed her in so much trouble at the time.

She stopped processing her thoughts of the past and returned her attention again to the mech in front of her. She still wasn't the slightest bit intimidated by or interested in him and so continued to choose to ignore him and his continual verbal demands.

When he finally left due to being called away by his compatriots, she just sat back and relaxed once again.

She could easily use her special ability to just get up, walk out the door and leave this facility altogether, but she couldn't be bothered, it would drain her energy more quickly than what she was charging up right now. She tried to avoid using that as little as possible. And there was no harm in waiting patiently till she was fully recharged anyhow, so she went back into her stasis nap once more.

Elsewhere in Iacon.

"Even I have a hard enough time getting Ultra Magnus to back off when he gets an idea in his head," Optimus commented blithely passing a data pad report to an unknown mech on his left. "But you have to admit that the situation isn't good, considering Steelwind's history."

"History?" Came a reply from his right, " _That_ particular history is not correct and was falsely documented."

"Be that as it may Ranger, we will need to discover for ourselves." Optimus advised the femme. "If she is innocent as you say, we will have her back to you in as short a time as we can manage."

Optimus had realised that as soon as Ranger had told him Steelwind's full story, it had been an attempt on her part to assist with the Autobots in their investigation. But Optimus had not realised there was any issue with Steelwind until Ultra Magnus had brought her in with stasis cuffs after the battle at Darkmount. And as loathe as he was to agree with his Cybertronian Second in Command in this case, he went along with it and kept in mind the information Ranger had given him to support Steelwind.

Ranger was walking alongside him and they both continued to discuss the situation further.

Optimus knew more than anyone that in the time his predecessor was leader, the Council manipulated many aspects of the Autobot faction including Sentinel Prime himself. Many innocent people were wrongly accused of their corruption. He wanted to give Steelwind the benefit of the doubt after hearing Ranger's story, but he also had to follow due process as well.

He didn't like it but it was the fact of life as the Commanding Officer.

Though he did see the value in a lot of what Ranger had already told him and was willing to see her point of view, he also had to deal with Ultra Magnus and with this old report about Steelwind.

When Ultra Magnus got an idea in his head, that was it, he saw it through to the end. Especially if it had something to do with seeing justice served.

Many things had presented themselves to him since these strange femmes had started to turn up on Earth. Many things from the past had started to become unearthed as well. This situation was just another one of them. And the more simplistic he wanted the situation to get in that regard, the more infinitely complex and confusing it became.

Optimus had stopped in his stride and sighed, rubbing his digits in the area between his optics, one of the many habits he had picked up while on Earth.

"Leave it with me and let you know." He said to her when she had stopped talking. She turned and left and as he watched her leave, he thought about how much more complicated life had become since all these femmes had come into their lives. And once again he sighed to himself.

The Combat Holofield.

This was a training area that had been constructed within Iacon, specifically for the purpose of training established soldiers and new recruits. The entire program was run by solid light projections and was nicknamed 'The Arena' by most instead of its official name.

Right now Sideswipe along with Jazz, had snuck away from the Medical bay and Ratchet. And were on the platform overlooking another individual who was training below in the arena's pit.

"Y'know Sides, I could always pull rank and make y'take me back to th'bay." Jazz commented, "Ol' mech Ratch' won' be 'appy. Y'know he'll come lookin' f'us."

"You see there's the thing," Sideswipe replied, "I know you won't because you want to get away from him as much as I do and this was the perfect place for now."

"Yeah, b'not like this?" Jazz queried to his friend.

He had questioned Sideswipe's actions over allowing a sparkling access to the combat arena and was still questioning himself for letting Sideswipe talk him into it.

Not that it was easy to talk Jazz into anything. He was one of the very few who could out-sweettalk Sideswipe, but in this case he was also curious about the youngster who had taken to following Sideswipe around like a lost mech sheep. Not only was he concerned for the sparklings welfare, he was just as concerned for the fact Sideswipe was just as attached and wondered how many other rules the red Lamborghini had broken just to amuse her over the last few weeks.

Jazz doesn't even know how she had convinced the big red warrior to let her play in the combat room and he still didn't want to know how either. He assumed it was just because he needed the authorisation of an officer to enter.

It would have already given Ratchet a trace tag to find them within the base. When the Head of the Medical department wanted to find you, it was no holds barred. And that's what always worried him when it came to Ratchet. Jazz was usually easy going and on the level with everything, but even Ratchet made him wary at times.

Jazz was still concerned about the sparkling, if anything, he agreed to come along so that Sideswipe wouldn't do anything stupid as he was sometimes prone to do and to keep an optic on the little femmes welfare.

Bit by bit he watched as Sideswipe elevated the program each time the little silver and gold sparkling had finished with one program after another.

What was surprising Jazz was that she was proving capable at fighting at their level, showing skills that a seasoned soldier would have had, certainly not a skill that a sparkling should have had, nor should she be enjoying herself. Many of the combat programs available in the holofield system were ones they themselves had made up for the recruits and he watched on stupendously as the femme beat each one with ease.

Jazz watched her intently, knowing that there was something else at work. He recognised the fact that she had an adaptive combat program like he did and wondered if it was a similar component of technology to his.

"Amazin'!" He mumbled to himself.

"What was that Jazz? You say somethin'?" Sideswipe asked over the noise on the floor below.

Nothin' Sides." He responded, "I think that's enough f'now." Jazz told his friend and reached over to switch the program off.

Sideswipe didn't want to finish the program, but just as Jazz switched off the last combat program he heard the familiar whirring of the door being opened to the combat chamber itself.

He and Jazz both knew they had jammed the door so that it would lock from the inside and they wouldn't be disturbed, but it looked like someone had been found to override the encoding.

Both of them sighed to themselves and then stood there like innocent angels when Ratchet presented himself and laid their optics on both of them, hoping that the sparkling would stay out of sight.

"And just _what in the Pit_ do you _two_ think your doing?" He questioned angrily with his usual elevated angry voice. "Neither of you are in any condition to be performing any sort of training, let alone in here of all places?!" He glared at Sideswipe for a moment expecting this sort of behaviour from the Lamborghini, but not so much expected from Jazz. "And don't think I won't be telling Optimus." He prodded the white Porsche with his left fore digit. When Ratchet said the last part gruffly and flatly Jazz knew there would be trouble.

"Guess I bett'r get goin' then eh?" Jazz said meekly while trying to slip away while Ratchet's attention was centred on Sideswipe. "Go report m'self an'all!"

"Oh, no you don't." Ratchet reached out to grab his shoulder brace that had just been welded back on and was still meshing back into his superstructure. Ratchet's grab was so sudden that Jazz suppressed the urge to let out a yelp of pain. He knew the Head Medic had done it to make a point and didn't want to give him the satisfaction.

Sideswipe on the other hand wasn't so fortunate, he received most of the verbal punishment.

The red mech was used to it and was just standing there quietly taking it all in and ignoring it as he usually did when Ratchet suddenly yelped and fell on the floor, grabbing his leg.

Jazz was relieved at the release of pressure on his shoulder plating but was even more amused that the little sparkling had kicked the Medic in the lower leg plating in defence of Sideswipe and it had been hard enough to take him off his peds.

This made both the wayward Autobots look at each other, Sideswipe grinned and Jazz silently thumbed towards the door. Sideswipe got the message and certainly wasn't going to stick around, not while he had an opportunity to get away from the evil head Medic. Sideswipe silently thanked his friend for the cover and left with the sparkling eagerly followed after him.

From the floor, Ratchet yelled, "Hey get back here you…" He slapped the floor with his hands in frustration, "Damn it."

Jazz reached down with his good arm and helped Ratchet up off of the floor.

"I'm not done with you yet." Ratchet said flatly, grabbing Jazz by his wrist joint to drag him back to the Medical bay.

' _Oh well!'_ Jazz thought to himself, _'Freedom was good while it lasted! I hope Sides' and the little lady stay outta trouble.'_

Somewhere in Iacon.

All those who were not Autobots or in the Medical bay being attended to were being kept here under watch in this makeshift lounge area.

Ranger and Galaxy had come back here when they had returned to Iacon out of good faith to their hosts as well as their loyalty to Steelwind, as well as wait for their other companions to return to normal health so they could travel and be on their way.

In the meantime it gave the rest of the healthy individuals some free time.

The youths that had returned with Skydive were being kept under watch for now due to the fact they were in Autobot Headquarters and they were getting increasingly bored as a result.

"Well at least they have a decent bodyshop?" Redline commented to the others.

"I wish you would whine about you precious paint job somewhere else." Catastophe argued.

"You're just jealous because I'm just that much better looking than you are!" He mused in return. "And taller." He had to rub it in.

That last bit was enough to make her react. "Ugh." Catastrophe got up, grabbed her flagon of energon, turned swiftly and suddenly dumped the contents of her container all over Redline, making him cringe from the sticky fluid now covering most of his upper half.

She grinned as he walked away, leaving him trying to shake off the rest that was dripping off his armour, "Guess you'll have to leave us and go back to the bodyshop!"

He pursed his lip components, murmured a few choice cuss words very quietly under his venting and left in a huff.

Redline knew better than to argue with Catastrophe. She always had much meaner methods of getting back at him and it usually involved his paint job suffering so he wasn't going to fight all that much, but it never stopped him from nitpicking every now and again.

"Now that's we have some peace and quiet again, let's get back to the game." Catastrophe announced.

She was currently in the middle of a multi level chess-like game with Twilight and the interruption from Redline had cost her a piece with Twilight's next turn while she was dealing with her cousin.

Gladiator had already given up quite some time ago with the game and had just stayed to watch as he had nothing better to do and was interested to see who would win this time.

Catastrophe though, felt that she may as well give up too. As new as Twilight was to the game, he had become very good at it and was beating her most times. She finally conceded when he took her last piece after another hour of play.

When it was all done she needed to find something else to occupy her need to do something.

Over by one of the windows, the mysterious silent drone who had been following their group around for some time now, was standing looking out the window. Catastrophe, every now and again, looked over to it to see what it was doing while she was conversing with her friends during their game play.

No one knew what to call it at first and the unknown drone had inadvertently picked up the name 'Goldie' from their little group. The name had helped them to associate with it and it also responded to the nickname, but whether it understood anything else, no one really knew. It did not speak either. No one had tried to find out, they had just assumed that because it kept quiet and to itself that it probably did not have the capacity to.

"I wonder if it has a vocal receptor?" Commented Gladiator.

"Haven't we already gone over this?" Twilight asked.

Gladiator looked at him blankly, "Did we? I don't remember?"

Catastrophe sighed, shook her head and looked at Twilight who started laughing at the whole situation with his new friends. Twilight had come to realise very quickly that Gladiator wasn't always on the ball when it came to discussions and he often forgot things, especially at the most inopportune times.

Catastrophe answered, " _It_ doesn't talk, no one has bothered trying to ask it if it can so it probably can't talk anyway."

"Oh?" Gladiator scratched his helm, "Oh yeah I remember now!"

Meanwhile over at the window, 'Goldie' was still looking out the viewing screen.

They were right in knowing it did not understand them, but that was because it did not speak modern Cybertronian, but an older form that barely anyone would remember.

This was due to damage it had suffered when it had been injured in the past, before it had found them. That situation had damaged it so badly and had prompted its survival programming to seek to repair itself by whatever means necessary and it chose to follow this group of others it had found later.

This had worked out for it as the little band were actually time travellers who had been from place to place, before they had arrived home once again. Following along with them had allowed it to gather other parts to fix what it could of itself to be reasonably functional.

Although its ability to communicate was still non functional and it was still not able to communicate with any others, nor understand them. The damage caused had switched its system to another, older communication program when its previous one could not function. And along with the severe damage to its memories, this really did not help anyone, least of all the drone itself.

It had not been able to remember much of anything, only that it needed to go somewhere and do something and had been following the group around for some time.

Enough of its memory of being able to fix things remained, as did the high level of its combat ability. It had been able to fix itself enough to move aptly and fight very well, but that was all, and it had remained with the group to try and find out a way to fix the rest of itself that was not functional and try to find a way to do something about its communication system.

Twilight looked up from their new game for a moment and looked the strange drones' way. "I wonder if we will ever get to know about it, who it is, where it's from…?"

"And why it's been following us around?" Catastrophe cut in. "I guess it doesn't really matter right now, so long as it stays on our side."

"Or whether it's a he or a she?" Gladiator added.

"I don't think that even matters really," Twilight spoke.

Catastrophe tapped her chest casing right in front of where her spark was located, "I believe it's a she."

Twilight and Gladiator just shrugged at their friends' weirdness

"I just want to go home!" Gladiator lamented. Being somewhere other than at home with his family, made him miss them terribly. Even though he did not often appreciate them when they were around, he really missed them now.

"We'll get home eventually G', don't worry about it, just take in the moment and see where this adventure will take us for now." Catastrophe responded.

"I don't have your level of enthusiasm Cat' but sure I'll give it as much a go as I can. It's just not going to make me feel all that better though." Gladiator lamented again.

Steelwind had had a long stasis nap and had begun to stir again when her detection systems, that were operational whilst she was offline, notified her of the small femmes' presence at her cell door.

At first, she was still half in her stasis nap mode and had not yet come online completely and she thought she was seeing things. But there, by the door, was a small silver and gold femme sparkling tapping on the wall to try and get Steelwind's attention.

"Feh." Steelwind said to herself in amusement, "Was wonderin' when ya'd come back t'me on y'own."

Steelwind knew exactly who the femme was even if the little one did not appear to know itself. The little femme looked the older one quizzically and tilted her head before she turned her attention to the doors, looking all around for something.

"Hey who's sparkling is this!" Yelled an unknown guard, "The prison cells are no place for a kid?" Apparently the tapping had alerted the guard.

A few mechs in their respective cells turned their attention to the yelling mech and also saw the small sparkling in the hall but paid it no mind.

Meanwhile the guard at the other end was frantically trying to get hold of his superior officer through his radio comms. "Yes. Yes. There's some sparkling in the maximum security ward. No, I don't know how she got in here or who she belongs to. Yes Sir. I will take care of it and find out who's responsible for it." When the soldier disconnected the communication, he wasn't too happy about the audio bashing he had just received for his lack of watchful optics and was not able to explain how a sparkling had gotten into the maximum security prison ward on its own or past him.

"Hey kid get away from there!" The guard had just begun to yell at the little femme as he thought she was playing with the keypad to a maximum security cell. "That's not a toy to be played with now get out of here!"

He grabbed the little femme by the shoulder braces and set her down about a metre away and pushed her off, waving his hands away thinking that she was going to get the idea that she had to leave.

The guard faced her down when she didn't move, "I said get out of here!" He yelled angrily, hoping to scare her.

She still didn't move, but she did point behind him.

But he thought he was smarter than some sparkling, "Nice try but I'm not going to fall for it." So the sparkling shrugged.

Apparently the guard had been too busy prostrating himself and putting on a show to scare the sparkling away to even hear the retraction of the energy grid that held the bars in operation of Steelwind's cell keeping her incarcerated, nor had he heard the cell's resident sidle up quietly behind him.

"Then maybe ya might fall f'this one, mate?" He heard behind him.

The sparkling knew what she was doing, not actually playing with the keypad but opening the cell, yet the guard realised too late after he ended up in a crumpled heap on the floor.

By the time the prison area's Commanding Officer had arrived, Steelwind's cell was wide open and there was no one there in the hall bar an offline guard on the floor and other detainees in their own respective cells.

Earth.

"Oh c'mon Vi', it's 'Spring Break', even I'm taking a break from my studies just to come and see you!" Casey whined, "Why do you have to work?"

"Because I made a choice to stay with the Autobots, and while I am under a provisional membership, I must keep to their schedules and rules, stay out of trouble and show them I'm not suspect."

"So…uh…have you been out on any missions yet?" Casey asked curiously. She knew that her other friend Rusty was under the same stringent scrutinising and had not been on any missions.

Violet did not answer straight away as she had put a visor over her faceplate and began welding some materials together. Casey had to step back due to the sparks, but her friend answered her as soon as she was done. "No. I am still under trial and they will not allow me to go on any missions as yet."

"But you'd prefer to be locked up in here all day anyway wouldn't you, with all your science gizmos and dusty old doohickey's right?"

Rusty was different from Violet in that regard though, the orange red femme always got out of the base and went driving as much as she could in her spare time while Violet often kept to herself and stayed indoors more than went outside to fly. Where Rusty was mainly a physical persona, Violet was an intellectual one.

Violet gave her a flat look. She was certainly very busy and had a lot of work to do. While she didn't mind on some levels, Casey's incessant chatter, she had even gotten used to Bluestreak, who was worse, but she wanted to get this work done and she wanted to be alone.

Violet said flatly but politely, "Casey, I have too much work to do, Can you please go and entertain someone else, like Rusty for instance."

"Ok ok, I get it, I get it, you're too busy, I'm going I'm going." She said as she disappeared out the door.

Violet shut off her optics and vented a long sigh as her friend left. She often wondered what it would be like for her to be quiet for even five minutes. Being quiet for five seconds was hard for her in the company of others and she wondered how her friend had managed to get through two years of a History major at University while sitting quietly in the lecture halls listening to her classes.

However that was a mystery for another day and so Violet went back to her work in earnest.

Elsewhere on the Autobot base.

Someone sighed, "Just one time I wish I could get a good hand!" Lamented Huffer.

Hearing their comrades' whining, two Autobots instantly decided to up their bets.

"Ya know Huffer, you really shouldn't play poker if you rave on like that." Rusty commented. She didn't like easy games of chance, she preferred a little bit of difficulty to make it fun, even when it was amongst friends.

"I reckon' he can say what he wants." Windcharger noted.

"For once I'd have to agree with him." Brawn responded flatly. Even though Huffer grinded his gears with his constant complaining, Brawn was short on credits and needed a win at their game, Rusty had already cleaned most of his credits out.

"Fair enough." Rusty replied. She was just being fair to everyone. She was good enough at the game not to worry about others and their player 'tells', but she didn't want someone to deliberately lose because of their own issues. Huffer was enough of a headcase in her own opinion as it was, she was just being polite to let him play.

She would have continued if not for the fact Casey had just meandered in and asked Bluestreak who was at another table, to help her up on top so they could talk.

"Ok folks, all yours, I'm out." Rusty said as she wandered off.

"You're not even going to take your winnings?" Brawn called out.

Rusty had won a fair bit already, she didn't care about the rest, "If you want it Brawn then its all yours, I've got other business to attend to.

Brawn wasn't going to say no to that, considering most of it was his anyhow. He took what Rusty left behind and then spoke to Windcharger. "He's all yours!" Then got up and left the table.

Windcharger slammed down his cards and got up. "Slag. Well I'm out of here too."

"Just my luck," Commented Huffer, "Everyone leaves me when I'm in the middle of a game." He vented as he got up to leave.

"That's one weird mech!" Rusty commented about Huffer to her new tablemates.

"He does that a lot, I mean all the time really, because he complains a lot and not many like it, but I don't mind him, sometimes he talks about interesting stuff…" Bluestreak chattered on.

"Yeah whatever." Rusty responded. She had brought her glass of energon over to the new table with her and drank the last of it, ignoring Bluestreak's chatter. He talked as much as Casey did so she didn't need to say much, just sit and listen to the two blabber on about nothing as they usually did.

Once there was an opening she interrupted the two who were deep in conversation, "So what are we going to do for the rest of the day?"

"We could go outside, it's a nice day, we could go for a drive or a picnic at the park or something else…" Bluestreak rambled on.

Rusty got up from her chair as he was still talking and patted him on the helm. "Outside is good enough." She said. She grabbed Casey, who was used to Rusty and her rough hands now and put her friend on her shoulder struts. "Let's go. I have somewhere in mind we can drive to. But first let's stop by the lab and see if Violet wants to come with…"

Casey interrupted, "She's too busy, kicked me out just so she could finish her work."  
Rusty stopped for a moment and thought about it, then shrugged, "Oh well, more fun for us then!"

Later.

On their drive out to their destination, Rusty had plenty of time to think as Casey had elected to sit with Bluestreak.

She wondered if Violet also lamented about the restrictions.

Rusty had joined them in the absence of their Commanding Officer and felt it was a way to get away from Shadow and what she owed the femme while she was gone for the time being. So far the Autobots were putting up with her bad language and unruly, impulsive behaviour and she had been driving Red Alert around the bend. Though she had not yet done anything to break any major rules, she was still allowed entry to their base under provisional membership and assisted wherever she could or was asked to.

And meanwhile Violet was the poster girl for good behaviour and still at least they treated both of the femmes equally, none better than the other.

Rusty wasn't allowed to do much and was restricted to certain parts of the base. Being chained down like that drove her up the wall most of the time because at her other home she had unlimited access to what she wanted. She did often prefer down time in their base, getting to know the others, but sometimes she wanted to be outside, like now. She was impulsive like that, one of the most endearing personality traits that Casey liked about her.

"Better than the alternative I s'pose!" She mumbled to herself, thinking about all the money she owed Shadow.

Just down the road she cruised into a dirt road very well hidden in amongst the trees and almost lost Bluestreak with Casey in tow who were not paying attention.

"Wow!" She exclaimed when she got out of Bluestreak's cab, "This place is great! How did you know about it?"

They had been driving for about an hour, straight south along the coast, and had ended up in a nice little forested area.

"I haven't been here for little while but we shouldn't be bothered here for a bit." Rusty pointed up at a nearby tower, "This thing always messes around with transmissions so no one will bother us for a bit."

But just as Rusty pointed up to the tower, they were rained upon, not with water or rain but with a shower of laser blasts forcing them to take cover.

Of all their luck they had turned up to a place that the Decepticons had previously staked out for themselves and one of their plans for energy theft. The group of three had just walked into major trouble.


	22. Chapter 22

*Part 22*

It had not been long since she had left the garrison and found her way into the main halls of Iacon. Using her shadow like teleportation skills was quite easy now that her power levels were back up to normal again.

 _'I much prefer that mode of transport to Mainframe's.'_ She commented to herself, _'A lot less taxin' on the fuel tanks than 'er dimensional slidin'.'_

But before long Steelwind found herself surrounded even before she was able to get to where she wanted to go.

She was not the least bit concerned with all the guns that were pointed at her right now.

"Don't move criminal." Someone stated. "You're going back to your cell where you belong."

Steelwind didn't even bother to look at the group of soldiers now pointing their charged weapons at her. She just vented out. She knew none of them were Optimus Prime's main group, they were just run of the mill Autobot soldiers, doing their job, protecting Iacon.

Some distance off, down one of the hallways, she spotted her friends, Ranger and Galaxy. A slight tilt of the head towards the sparkling that was sitting on her shoulder struts started up some trouble.

Then something happened.

Optimus Prime had just arrived with Ultra Magnus and was not impressed by what he saw.

Ultra Magnus had taken it upon himself to march right up to Steelwind and demand she release all the soldiers immediately.

"What makes you think this was my doing." She stated calmly without looking at him.

Optimus Prime's furrowed brow travelled from the bewildered soldiers and their weapons stuck to the metal of the ceiling and then back to Steelwind.

When Optimus Prime stepped forward towards her, he received a verbal warning from his Cybertronian second in command. "Careful Sir, she is a dangerous criminal."

"That has yet to be determined Magnus." Optimus said flatly.

Steelwind vented out then looked around Optimus to Ultra Magnus and put her hands out. "You took me weapons mate, r'member. How am I s'posed t'harm anyone with no weapons now eh?"

She knew that was not entirely true as her weapons systems had hidden devices all over her body that she could utilise, but for this purpose, all she wanted to do was talk.

"Did you do this?" Optimus walked right up to her and asked.

Steelwind diverted her attention to the young sparkling that was standing next to her. "Well?"

The young one growled and swished her hands and suddenly all the soldiers who were stuck to the ceiling fell to the floor and right afterwards all their weapons fell on top of them.

Optimus Prime looked at her with a puzzled expression. "Meridian has a mimic power chip, can copy any special ability belongin' t'others within range." Without looking at Galaxy, whom she knew was the source of that particular magnetic capability.

Optimus was about to look down and question the femme when she suddenly raced off. As he turned around he found she had attached herself to a certain red Lamborghini further down the hall that had just appeared with some others as a result of the commotion.

Ultra Magnus immediately noticed Sideswipe's new attachment and thinned his optics in disapproval.

"Ultra Magnus, I'm sure we can sort all this out just by talking to both of them." Optimus assured him.

But Ultra Magnus would not have anything of it. He wanted Steelwind back in her cell and also add Sideswipe to his list.

"Excuse me but from what I r'member of the hallway after my cell was opened, that red mech wasn't even there an' I didn't even lay a digit on that guard." Steelwind tried to appease them both. "I just came to talk." Steelwind hinted at the two femmes standing some distance off from the commotion. "I'm sure those two would have said something?"

Optimus scrutinised Steelwind for a moment before turning to Ultra Magnus and giving him a silent signal.

"Guards, pick up your weapons and escort this prisoner into a meeting room and keep watch until further notice." He ordered.

Optimus inclined his head to his Vice Commander when he had finished talking and followed on behind the guards when they began to march Steelwind down another hallway. Ranger and Galaxy fell in behind Optimus when he passed them along the way.

Ultra Magnus watched them as they left and thinned his optics at Sideswipe as he went past to return to his duties.

The little femme gave what appeared to be a raspberry to the senior officer when he left and this made Sideswipe snicker.

On Earth.

"Ya gotta be fraggin' kiddin' me!?" Rusty exclaimed to herself, confused.

She'd been friends with Casey a very long time and hadn't had the slightest notion that all these years, one of her best friends was actually some kind of android rather than a human. And right now she didn't know what else to do about it but think about the situation.

Rusty admitted to herself that she had blindly led Casey and Bluestreak right into a warzone, one that may not allow them to call for backup, due to interference from the tower close by. The Decepticons themselves had apparently been having issues with the tower as they had not detected the approach of those who had unfortunately intruded into one of their energy stealing schemes.

Rusty knew the tower gave out electromagnetic static and systems worked intermittently at best. She had found this spot years ago and often came here when she wanted to be alone as no one had ever found her here except Shadow.

Right now though she was cursing herself for the trouble she had gotten Casey and Bluestreak in and inevitably herself.

She looked down at the unconscious body of Casey still sitting in the cleft of her arm and sighed. There were too many questions about what had happened and so she just did her best to help Bluestreak with defending their position with the small hand held pulse gun she had as it was all Bluestreak had to spare for her to use.

Rusty had to admit that her Autobot companion was actually a very good shot compared to others she had seen. Her own skills were a bit lax as she was more a brawler than a gunner. In between a fair amount of chatter Bluestreak often stopped suddenly, fired, and then went back to talking with one smooth action which amazed her.

At one point she just let Bluestreak take over when her own ammunition ran out and she turned her attention back to her unconscious charge and Casey's protection.

Casey still had illuminated lines of pink energy all over her face and limbs from what she could see. She could only assume it was some kind of circuitry. She had seen Shadow become marked on her human forms face at times when using self created energy blasts. She thought perhaps it may be the same thing, but being she had no experience with it, she was also unsure what it actually was.

The self perpetuating energy blasts were what had caused Casey's transformation of sorts. Rusty supposed it was some form of self defence mechanism as Casey appeared more surprised by it than knowing she had the ability. She had suddenly used some sort of intense plasma burst to protect her friends. It had allowed them to run for cover but had cost Casey her consciousness, where she now lay with Rusty.

It had initially given them an advantage over the 'Cons as they were startled by it, but with their ammunition fast running out and neither of them knowing if Bluestreak's call for help had gotten through, they were at a loss right now.

Rusty wasn't all that good at discerning medical practices either. She had known enough for herself when she was human to fix wounds when she needed to but that was about it. Androids were a different matter altogether and she knew next to nothing about her own body, needing to rely upon others for it.

She did however check Casey over just in case. No blood or other bleeding wounds. Still appeared to be breathing. Casey was just unconscious possibly just from the shock of what had happened. Rusty knew that was something Casey often did, her brain seized up and she often fainted.

She turned her attention back the fire fight. Not many shots were coming in now. Bluestreak had managed to take down a few of those who were firing at them already.

"How long do you think it will take them to get our message and respond?" She asked the silver and black mech. They had been holding out for an hour now and the Decepticons wouldn't give up till they were both offline.

In their logic there were many of them and only two Autobots whom were the enemy and had to be destroyed. So they kept firing even though several of their comrades had already been taken down by Bluestreak. And eliminating two Autobots, even though Rusty was not actually one, suited their battle lust.

Rusty let Bluestreak prattle on as he did while she busied herself and checked her own wounds once again. She ordinarily relied upon her highly durable armour, but this surprise battle had caught her off guard completely. And also, a Decepticon had gotten in a lucky shot. She looked down at the leaking fuel lines protruding from her leg joint. It was this injury that was preventing her from moving anywhere too quickly and if left unattended even she knew it would stop her moving anywhere at all. It was also preventing her from transforming.

She was just lucky that help had turned up when it did. And she no longer needed an answer from Bluestreak about their friends' arrival.

The remaining Decepticons, who had thought their position safe, were now bombarded by more enemy fire.

Although as soon as the Autobots arrived, those Decepticons that were left, abandoned the fight and left in a hurry as soon as they realised they were out-powered.

Cliffjumper, one of the Autobot arrivals, did not trust that the 'Cons were simply escaping to save their own struts, believed they were up to something else, he charged after them, with Brawn and Windcharger not too far behind. First Aid had also come with the group and stayed behind to do his part.

That left Bluestreak to watch over First Aid as he attended to Rusty and Casey.

When the others returned from their patrol, it was to hearing Rusty yelling at First Aid.

"How the hell am I s'posed to know how this happened? I didn't even know she was an android to begin with!"

First Aid was a little put off and surprised for being yelled at, as he was not used to this femme's abrasive temper. He didn't actually know how to respond to her so he just went back to fixing her leg joint while the others watched on in confusion over the situation.

Rusty huffed through her outtakes and crossed her arms, sitting quietly while she let First Aid finish what he was doing to her leg.

Brawn broke the silence by speaking. "Well at least this is one less energon supply run that the 'Cons didn't get away with." Windcharger and Cliffjumper both agreed, all satisfied that there was no other 'Con's in the area and no damage done to any property here.

When First Aid was satisfied that Rusty would be capable enough to transform and travel with them he told the others. Bluestreak and Cliffjumper transformed and left first with Rusty and First Aid not far behind. Brawn and Windcharger brought up the rear guard.

As they were driving, Windcharger remarked to Brawn, "These sorts of things always seem to happen when we are on duty don't they?"

"And you're complaining about that?" Brawn responded.

"No not really, but at least Huffer isn't here to complain about it!" Windcharger exclaimed.

"Damn right!" And both of them laughed.

Steelwind vented out.

She had been gracious enough to relay as much information about her situation and her business on Earth to Optimus Prime as she was willing to give, without giving anything away that she did not want him and the other Autobots to know. She was open and friendly enough but not that open, even she had her secrets and wanted to keep them that way.

"How do we know this isn't all some kind of fabrication in an attempt to manipulate us into letting you go?" Ultra Magnus questioned.

He had accompanied Optimus Prime and some others into the interview room intent on wanting to prove Steelwind's guilt and wanted her re-incarcerated.

Galaxy and Ranger had also accompanied the group, but both were sitting there quietly taking everything in an effort to allow Steelwind to try and control the situation to her advantage.

Steelwind raised a brow ridge at Ultra Magnus. "You're boss doesn't seem to think so?" She stated confidently.

Magnus turned his attention to his OIC and questioned, "You don't seriously believe any of this do you?"

Optimus vented out slowly then pinched his brow ridge in frustration and concern.

"I may not believe all of it." He opened by saying, "But it seems too far fetched for my own tastes, yet…" He stopped for a moment and listened to the Matrix.

The whole time Steelwind had been talking, it had been pulsing. When it did this it was a way for him to discern truth from situations around him. As soon as Steelwind had stopped talking it had stopped again and gone back to its silent state.

Optimus knew well enough not to ignore it as it always worked out for the best when it did see fit to show him which direction to take. And in this case it was telling him to believe Steelwind's story despite not believing it all himself.

"But what Sir?" Ultra Magnus interrupted.

"Nothing you need worry yourself about Magnus." Optimus stated simply to his Cybertronian second. "For now I will give her the benefit of the doubt and leave it at that."

"And? You're just going to let this criminal go free?" Ultra Magnus added, obviously not happy with the outcome. He was willing to accept what Optimus wanted to do but he still didn't believe Steelwind was innocent.

Optimus got up to leave his chair and walk out of the interview room. He said to Ultra Magnus as he was leaving. "If you want to keep an optic or two on Steelwind and her friends, then by all means do, but the Matrix has showed me otherwise. I will still be watching them myself when I return to Earth, so I will leave it to you to use your discretion in this matter." And then he left he room.

Ultra Magnus wasn't going to argue when the Matrix was involved. Yes he still thought Steelwind and some of her companions needed to be incarcerated. But he had been overruled and given simple instructions and just observe from this point on.

He vented out and got up out of his chair. He gave one last look at the three femmes sitting in the room and then left to follow Optimus.

After both had left and the door had closed behind then, Ranger asked. "What exactly is going to happen now?"

Steelwind answered casually, "Guess it means we're off th'hook."

"Indeed." Galaxy added.

Out in the hallway.

"Are you very sure that this is the course of action you wish to follow Commander." Ultra Magnus questioned Optimus again.

Optimus could see he wasn't taking his decision very kindly. Even though Ultra Magnus was ordinarily very strict when following orders and protocol, he often afforded his second some leeway when he sought to question some of his decisions.

"The Matrix has chosen the course of action in this matter and that's all I can and will say about it. Now I've given you some suggestions if you still wish to pursue certain avenues. But apart from that, that's all I will expect you to do. Is that clear?"

Ultra Magnus noticed that his Commander was not often direct and he knew he was often given some leeway, but it was painfully obvious that the Matrix had given the final word on this situation. He didn't know how or what was the reason, but he had no choice but to let it go.

Ultra Magnus did not agree with the outcome, but he was going to take Optimus up on his suggestion of keeping watch on these suspicious individuals.

Back in the room.

"They locked us in didn't they?" Steelwind queried.

"Yes." Galaxy replied flatly as she usually did.

Steelwind pursed her lip components and murmured under her vents. "Typical. I wouldn't mind bettin' Ultra Magnus forgot to tell the guards t'let us go on purpose." So she opened a comms. unit on her arm. "Mainframe, you're needed."

She had not organised this event in any way or form, she had impulsively decided to wing it. She had enough faith in what she often did to just randomly allow things to fall into place. When she had an idea, she followed it to see if it worked, when she needed to go somewhere or do something she did it and worried about the consequences afterwards. And when she would rather something worked in her favour and didn't want to worry about it, she went and did it anyway and had faith that it would work out for the best, just as it had now.

But the problem was being stuck in this room. She wanted to go somewhere that she didn't have the power to get to with her shadow shifting powers and so called on a friend whom she knew was still close by.

She hated Mainframe's teleportation methods, but it was necessary for her ends.

Mainframe herself didn't mind being used so much. As she knew Steelwind could not utilise her shadow shifting abilities right now due to the room they were in being well lit.

"Well. Vacations over. Let's get goin'." Steelwind stated. She had already begun to feel the arrival of Mainframe's teleportation energies.

"And where are you going?" Ranger asked.

"Bus'ness mate." Was all Steelwind said.

Ranger took that to understand that it was probably Council business in Cyberia.

"F'now I'll leave Shadow where she is. She'll find 'er way back to us as she usually does. You two take care o'the rest o'the gang and those kids we picked up. Get 'em 'ome to Earth with Mainframe and I'll meet back up with y'later."

Both the femmes nodded.

Mainframe had teleported in and taken care of some business with the other femmes then came back for Steelwind.

"You have Council business to attend to back home?" Mainframe asked her friend. "Is that why you needed me?"

"Yep." Steelwind answered.

When she had been telling Optimus the information before, she had received a private message from a Council secretary for her to come and attend a meeting. It was not unusual for her to be dragged to them to deal with Cyberian business matters. But she went and took care of it anyway because it was part of her responsibilities.

"I assume my father will be there." Mainframe stated. She knew Steelwind and her paternus did not get along due to who Steelwind was and potentially what she now held.

Mainframe's father always thought the Obsidian system was a bane to their society and it should be extricated from Cyberia altogether. But the Cyberian High Council wanted to have somewhere to put all the low ebb types so they could be monitored.

Even though the city was aptly named for the types that were isolated there and the black market and illegal activities that always went on, Steelwind barely ever spent any time there, only going back when she had business matters to attend to.

Mainframe's paternus was also well supported amongst the Council even though they disagreed with his view on Obsidian.

"You should try living with him, he is worse at home." Mainframe mused.

This made Steelwind smirk, "Glad that I don' 'ave to!" She said as Mainframe began to create a teleportation field around both of them.

"What exactly you goin' t'do with 'er?" Jazz asked his red comrade.

"Maybe I can keep her as a pet!" Sideswipe mused.

Even Jazz knew that was a stupid remark and shook his head case at the red Lamborghini. Still he had to admit that the sparkling had taken to him like an electro duck to an energon pond.

He watched as Sideswipe gave her an energon cookie and she readily started chewing on it.

Jazz remarked, "What'cha think Sunny'll say 'bout 'er then?"

"Don't know?" Sideswiped shrugged his shoulder plates.

"Haven' thought that far ahead have ya?" Jazz commented. Sideswipe shook his head in a negative fashion.

"Guess I could smuggle her back home on Skylynx somehow and keep her secret on the base?" Sideswipe suggested.

Jazz took all this in his stride. He was a senior officer and Sideswipe was telling him a whole bunch of things that he shouldn't, but Sideswipe was honest with him as they trusted each other. Jazz didn't always agree with or go along with Sideswipe's ideas, but they were friends.

Jazz pursed his lip components and vented out his nasal sensors. He then began to wander away from Sideswipe. "Well I don' know anythin' 'bout any stowaways 'kay!" Part of Jazz knew that Cybertron was not currently a safe place for any sparkling due to the war going on so the femme may just be safer with the Autobots on Earth.

"Thanks Jazz." Sideswipe commented as the saboteur left and waved back at him. Sideswipe looks down at the little femme and asks her non-chalantly, "So what are we going to do with you, eh?" He reached down to her and patted her on the head.

Sideswipe was loathe to admit he had become attached to her in such a short time. In some cases she had been a bonus to have around for the femmes that had been in Iacon and at other times for pranks he wanted to set up and underhanded activities he had undertaken. She had wilfully taken part of her own accord without much asking from him so he felt less guilty about getting her involved, but in a way it had made him more attached to her.

She suddenly scrambled up onto his shoulder struts as she often did.

He had noticed that Skylynx had just arrived and she was pointing at him.

"Go home." She stated simply before scrambling off of Sideswipes shoulders just as soon as she had climbed up onto them.

And then she ran off.

Sideswipe called out to her, "Hey where you goin'?" But she didn't answer and by the time he had tried to catch up, he had made it over to the launch pad and she was nowhere to be seen.

He lamented with himself and thought. He felt she had just answered his question for him as to what would be done with her. He looked around for a fair while before he was asked to help out with loading Skylynx with cargo for going back to Earth.

Helping out took his mind off of where the little femme had gone.

But unbeknownst to him, she wasn't too far away, hidden somewhere safe.

Weeks later back on Earth.

A human looking android by the name of Daphne had dressed incognito to go for a walk in downtown Portland.

She and her friends had travelled into the past from the future to look for some time lost friends of theirs. But while they were here in the present they were here undercover as celebrities, namely a popular rock group.

Daphne herself was a keytarist and keyboardist in the group. And her other friends were also musicians or helped with the group.

While she was not as openly recognised as their group's lead singer Stella, she still needed to hide herself so she wouldn't be mobbed for autographs as she had something important she wanted to do today and didn't want any interruptions.

Different members of their little group went out at different times to check various places in and around Portland when they could because that was where their signals had been traced to. The fact that it had taken a while so far, they had begun to think they may have gotten the wrong time period or even the wrong city area for that matter.

Daphne had actually admitted to herself how popular their rock group had become in such a short time. She had thought it a great idea at the time as most of them could adapt personal skills to instruments of this time for hide their identities and have a cover while they were here. But it left them with little time to look for their friends when they were in Portland as they were now travelling around frequently. And it also left the dilemma of what to do when they were actually ready to go home again.

Today was just one of those days Daphne had free and had a chance to look, and she felt rather lucky.

She had sat and sipped her tea at the café for only fifteen minutes when luck had come her way in the form of an old custom Harley Davidson motorcycle with a sidecar and a rider in gothic leathers astride it.

The rider's leather suit and also the bike itself were predominantly black with yellow accents in the exact same pattern that she knew her friend had on her mecha shell, despite the fact it was an Earth vehicle.

Daphne felt it was exactly the kind of thing Catastrophe would have chosen. Due to the fact in her time she was an antiques dealer and loved anything that was old or had a history behind it. And this particular type of motorcycle had a definitive history and culture in the country of this time period

She left the café quickly and snuck down an alleyway to shift back into her vehicle form and followed the motorbike.

Daphne also thought she had better update her friends as to what she was doing in case this took some time and they expected her back for business reasons to do with their music.

She opened a communications line and found her friend Liberty on the other end of the line.

' _Any news?'_ Her friend asked over the radio.

"I might have a possible lead." Daphne answered back

' _Well I hope it is a good lead this time.'_ Liberty commented.

Daphne knew that Liberty was getting rather frustrated with the whole affair of being in this time. While she had come along of her own free will, the longer they had remained here in the past the more likely it was that they could change the timeline or run into their relatives . And while they had been looking for their friends they were also busy with the music, it had been a little frustrating for her as the time being used was taken away from them finding a way back home.

"It'll work out, don' worry. We'll get 'home again." Daphne tried to reassure her.

' _Just let me know later if it's a good lead or not and I will talk to you later.'_ Liberty abruptly ended the call.

Daphne would have rolled her optics if she could, but she was in her vehicle mode right now with an active holomatter construct pretending to drive the car for appearances sake.

She followed the bike for several miles towards the south, outside of town for some time, keeping enough distance so as not to raise suspicion. Then she noted the bike turned into a large estate that she instantly recognised as the entrance to the home of the Deane family.

Daphne wondered what spiel she could swing to get into the house. Being that she was an employee of Deane Entertainment, she could at least try to say she was here to see Sonia Deane, but then she had no reason to as she did not deal directly with her or her friends.

Then she thought of something.

In her subspace pockets were documents she needed to go over for the group's music contract.

It had been given to her and the others a few days ago and they had yet to return it to Sonia Deane's office and Daphne now saw this as an opportunity to make use of it, to talk to Sonia directly about it.

She sat by the roadside with her engine's idle and made a call.

' _Great!'_ Thought Daphne when she got her asnwer, _'This is turnin' out t'be a very lucky day after all!'_

Inside the house.

"Seems we have a visitor?" A young red haired male comments after looking through a window.

"You're always wanting someone to visit so you can make new friends Redmond, and to show off too. You're such an attention seeker!" A woman named Bast commented as she walked up near him to look for herself.

She had just arrived home and had come into the house through the side entrance in the garage. The side entrance allowed her and her time lost friends to shift into their android forms to come into the house and the opposite to leave.

They had only recently been delivered to Earth from Cybertron after being unceremoniously dumped in this time and on this planet with no knowledge of how they were going to get home once again or even knew why they had been brought here. And they had been handed over to the people in their current residence for somewhere to live until then.

"I know that car!" Bast commented, "It followed me from Portland?"

Redmond jibed her. "Oh don't be stupid, who would want to follow you?"

She thinned her eyes at him and whacked him in the arm and then turned her attention to the car outside. "It's the same car I know it!"

"Well then let's see who steps out, shall we!" Redmond commented, rubbing his now very sore arm.

At the same time they both exclaimed "Daphne?!", when they recognised the human form that stepped out of the car. Both of them then raced to the front door to meet the unexpected guest.

But someone else had already beaten them to the doorway. Another one of the household employees had met their friend at the front door to greet the visitor and then took her over to meet Sonia who had just come down from upstairs.

The two remained as quiet and out of the way as they could, as they did not know for sure if it was Daphne, and if so whether she was undercover for something as she did not come to speak to them straight away or even look in their direction in recognition.

Sonia met with her visitor and started to discuss business matters on the way to the downstairs office that she often used and took the paperwork from her at the same time, but she couldn't put something else out of her mind.

She always had a sixth sense for knowing when something was going on even though she couldn't see anything. She had been told of the situation with the new house arrivals and why they were there and had already learnt to discern each one of them according to their scents or their voices because of her heightened sense of smell and hearing. But there was also something else she knew about them.

And she could hear scuffling feet and murmured voices coming from behind the stairs near the front door.

"Are you two intending on joining us or are you just going to hide there behind the stairs and spy on us both?" She asked in a flat tone.

Bast and Redmond sheepishly walked out from behind the stairs and Sonia's visitor grinned, instantly recognising their bio-forms.

"We were just…um…" Bast said innocently.

"Never mind that." Sonia chided them abruptly. She was already familiar with who and what Daphne and her musical friends were as she was more than just blind. She had the ability to see things through sound, and not just solid objects but inside them also and could tell that Daphne was just like the time lost youths that were now occupying her house.

She took the top of her cane and nudged Daphne with it. "As I'm already aware of what you are, as well as those two," She addressed the visitor pointing at the other two youths with her cane, "I'm sure you would much rather spend the time to get reacquainted now that our business is done." And she turned to walk back towards her office.

The smile was wiped from Daphne's face, as well as from those of the other two. This woman obviously knew more than any of them thought she did and it startled them.

When she had gone some distance, Redmond whispered, "How in the Pits does she know?"

"I may be blind you three but I am neither deaf nor stupid." Came the loud reply from Sonia's office.

Daphne shrugged and then looked at both of them, where she received a group hug from the both of them. "Well tha's one less thing t'worry 'bout a'least!" She mused.

But the keyboardist knew it was something she would have to follow up later as she gave Sonia's office a side glance. The woman knew something, and just how much she did know, Daphne was very curious about.


	23. Chapter 23

*Part 23*

Weeks later after their group had returned home again, Sideswipe could not believe he felt rather lamented about the little femme not being around. She had spent quite a lot of her time around him on Cybertron and he was loathe to admit he had grown somewhat attached and now missed her presence.

Even in the first week back, his brother had whacked him in the back of the helm to get him to pay attention during combat training. As well as many times at other occasions after that.

Sunstreaker could tell something was up but he couldn't be bothered asking why. Even though he would normally ask as it was his brother, he also knew to allow Sideswipe some privacy as he would expect the same for his own concerns.

All he could do, until Sideswipe was ready to confide in him, was demand he snap out of whatever daydream he was in at the time and pay attention to other things when needed.

But it was some later that Sideswipe, still in the same state of mind, was beginning to irritate Sunstreaker too much, that he thought to intervene.

So at one occasion where they both had the day off their shifts, Sunstreaker dragged his brother out for a drive, and for some time away from everyone else on the base to get to the bottom of what was going on.

"So what's crawled up your tailpipe?" He asked brutally.

Sideswipe transformed and sat down on some rocks nearby in a daze, not completely paying attention to what his brother just said.

"Please don't tell me you've gone and fallen in love with one of Elita One's femme soldiers while you were away?" Sunstreaker questioned.

That suddenly snapped Sideswipe out of his daze, "What? No!"

"Well then what is it that's making you act even more like an idiot than usual?"

Sideswipe thought for a moment and then realised it wasn't all that important.

"Nothing you need to worry about." He commented to Sunstreaker.

"You do realise that anything that's your business is my business too because we're brothers, or have you forgotten that?" Sunstreaker pried, wanting to know more. "I let it go hoping you'd deal with it, but now you're annoying me with this slag, so out with it?"

"Look, don't…" Sideswipe was about to tell him to back off and not worry about when he saw some debris coming down the hill that had started to fall on him.

He only had a moment's notice to get out of the way before a boulder came crashing down right on top of where he had just been sitting.

Sunstreaker had to get out of the way also but had reacted quicker than Sideswipe. Whereas the red mech had dived onto his front, Sunstreaker had jumped to the side and had time to get out his pistol and point it at where the rock had come from.

"Ugh" He complained, "It's just some damned cat, a cougar or something." Sunstreaker put his pistol away in dismay, thinking it was some Decepticons that had happened their way and was sorely disappointed.

"Oh well, guess I don't have to get…uoof." Sideswipe had only just turned himself over to sit on his aft, when the cougar that his brother did not seem bothered by had leapt onto his scratched up chest casings, knocking him back onto the ground once again.

"Whoah, this cat's way heavier than it should be?" Queried Sideswipe as he struggled to get back up again.

Sunstreaker got his pistol back out again to scare the cat off but Sideswipe waived him off. Sideswipe was very curious about the cat all of a sudden.

The cat stood there and stared at Sideswipe then shifted its image from an organic cat to mechanical and back again then dropped something on him and leapt away back up the hill of rocks again.

"What the frag was that all about Sideswipe? I hope you don't have some damned secret pet you haven't told me about. I'm not having some other animal wreck our quarters again if you were going to try and bring it into the base." Sunstreaker growled. "I won't get into trouble with Optimus again because of your stupid ideas."

Sideswipe was distracted from the cat for a moment to think about what Sunstreaker had just said. He had indeed tried to keep a pet secret in the base before but it had ended up trashing their rooms inside the base. It was not something he wanted to go through again.

But then it brought his thoughts back to the cat.

He thought he would have recognised the animal if it had been around this area before. But he had never seen it till now.

Apart from the fact it was abnormally heavy for what an Earth Cougar should be. And for a short moment he thought he had seen it briefly in a mech form.

It also dropped a crystal in his lap. Something that he had given to the young femme back on Cybertron as a gift, thinking she'd like the energon shard.

He didn't connect the dots straight away but then he realised it must be her. The femme had stowed away somewhere and gotten here and had taken an alternate mode to stay hidden.

' _Maybe she was just keeping herself hidden…'_ Sideswipe thought.

"It's that damned cat isn't it?" Sunstreaker interrupted him.

"Huh?" Sideswipe blithely replied, "Um, yeah, I guess."

"Damn it, Sideswipe, we are not having another pet. Don't think that I didn't notice it was a Turbo Cat under that holographic Cougar cover or whatever it was. What if it's got some kind of Cybertronian virus that…?"

Sideswipe started laughing, "You know you sound just like Red Alert right now!"

Comparing Sunstreaker to other 'bots was one way to get him to shut up and Sideswipe found it funny when he pouted.

"Don't compare me to that idiot. I'm much better looking for one thing and I'm not a mental case." Sunstreaker sat down next to his brother. "So…are you going to give me the full story on this cat or what?"

Sideswipe was still laughing at his brother's 'I'm not mental' comment when he started talking, "Not a cat. Or at least she wasn't on Cybertron."

"She?" Sunstreaker queried.

"Yeah, a sparkling. We found her after a battle with some Decepticons that left me out of order for a while and she just kind of stuck around, sort of adopted me and wouldn't go away." Sideswipe continued.

Sunstreaker wasn't altogether happy about the story but he generally stayed quiet and listened. "So does this…femme have a name?"

"I think someone said her name was Meridian or something."

"Weird name." The yellow warrior questioned.

"Yeah, weird." At least now his brother knew what was going on, no more hiding it.

Elsewhere.

Close by, a lone human was apparently hiking.

He had watched and listened to the entire conversation between the twins about the so called cat and was now prepared to move on.

Before he left though, the cat had already seen and followed him and was now watching him.

It knew he was not the human he was pretending to be. She turned off her holographic field and shifted from her cat form to her mech form and continued to watch him, very interested for unknown reasons why.

He seemed familiar to her but she did not recognise him outright, yet was still curious.

He knew her but was not interested in staying or making contact, he had only been told to sight the cat and then return home.

The little femme watched as he shifted to his own mechanical form, transformed into his jet mode and took off.

Casey sighed to herself.

The person looking back at her in the mirror still looked the same as it always did, but now that she knew she wasn't human nor had she been born one, she essentially questioned who it really was that was staring back at her in this mirror and did not like who it was anymore as it had pretty much shattered her reality and sense of self.

' _You been lookin' at that thing for ten minutes now, how 'bout you start lookin' or thinkin' 'bout somethin' else.'_ Came a disembodied voice.

That was her friend Rusty, in her vehicle mode. Casey had been using the passenger side visor mirror to look at herself and reflect upon events in her life of late.

Rusty wasn't bothered in the least that her friend was like her in a way. At first she admitted she had been confused and then it had taken her a bit of time to understand, but was now accepting of it, as were her other friends.

If it had not been for their support, she supposed she would not be coping right now.

Sometimes, Casey knew, she could be an emotional wallflower, she could retreat into herself and ignore the rest of the world. Her friends also knew this and had started working on her straight away to make sure she stayed with them.

She sighed. "I still don't like it."

' _You'll get used it. I did. The feeling of regret, of goin' back to the way you were before will always be there though.'_ Rusty commented. _'Least you can change back to normal, I can't.'_

Casey snickered in amusement. This was true. Rusty was just a human soul in a mecha shell and couldn't do anything with it except be a transformer. She on the other hand could switch between her old human face and her silver skinned mech face with the pink and purple markings. At least with that, there was a semblance of retaining some normalcy for Casey and how she felt about her situation.

"Christine and Laura are coming along was well?" Casey asked.

Rusty had arranged a get together with Casey's school friends. Being that her last outing had born bad fruit, she had organised something close to the Autobot base.

What Rusty had not mentioned to Casey as yet, was that the get together was somewhat of a surprise. Casey had been so busy being emotional over herself lately, that she had forgotten her birthday.

Casey's friends had made a note not to mention it and so had planned something for her. Something else to take her mind off what had happened recently.

' _Yeah.'_ Rusty answered. _'Violet is coming along too. She managed to get some time away from the Autobots and Victor, well, now that he's back, he has no time for anything but his show business.'_

Casey could tell there was a bit of venom in her words.

Victor and Violet were different from both of them. Both were created as Cybertronians, but had been raised as humans in what was considered proto shells. They'd more or less over time discovered their true selves but had also taught themselves to shift between their mecha base modes and human looking android modes at will now.

Rusty was jealous. She did not say it directly, but she was. The fact she wanted to return to her human self was evident, but she could not and the frustration was a continuing annoyance to her.

"Don't worry about it." Casey tried to console Rusty, "Maybe Frankie can fix you?"

Casey was just a history student, not a tech gee. She didn't really understand what Frankie did, let alone what she was now trying to understand what she was..

' _Whatever comes, I guess.'_ Rusty verbally shrugged it off. She would deal with each day as it came right now. Even though there were some things she was unhappy about, it was how she would deal with it, by not letting it control her.

Her life, now very different to the one she used to have and so she understood how different it was going to be for Casey. Even though it was not the same case with her, she could still be sympathetic about it.

Southern Oregon.

Steelwind was in her bio-mode. She was leaning on a post on her farmhouse veranda, enjoying a hot cup of natural oil.

Sitting on a seat near her was Reignfire, also in his bio-form.

"Any sign of him yet Rei'?" She asked in between sips.

Steelwind had shown Reignfire some trust to allow a recent addition to her team to go and visit the area near the Autobot base.

She had been there herself not so long ago to discuss some business with Optimus Prime about Rusty, Vanguard and Violet, but had not brought up the subject of their resident watcher on the grounds outside their base. Instead she had sent another to investigate the watcher, that was residing in the scrub forest surrounding the Autobot base.

"He returns just now." Reignfire answered.

A black, gold and white jet transforms itself and before it has even finished doing so, transforms yet again into a smaller human looking android form.

"Showing off are we?" Steelwind jibed the newcomer.

He ignores her comment and reports what he had seen. "It appears the…twins…have discovered her identity and placement there."

Steelwind noticed he had some remembrance about the twins as he had emphasised when mentioning them.

"Did she recognise you?" Reignfire asked. The newcomer shook his head.

Steelwind turned to the old general, "Y'think I would've sent 'im if he was goin' t'be recognised?" She sighed, "I only sent 'im t'look an' report."

Reignfire did not like being told off by anyone, but he was here on Earth at Steelwind's discretion and would rather be here than in Chaos City, incarcerated, so he tolerated her manner.

"Well?" Reignfire again addressed the newcomer.

"No." He replied, "Nor was I seen by them." When he had finished he waited till the other two had discussed some matters and then added, "I will now retire for meditation practice." And then went inside the house.

"Your son ain't very talkative is 'e?" Steelwind commented. "Compared to Starscream, I suppose that's a bonus eh mate!"

Reignfire again grimaced as Steelwind slapped him in the back, his other son was something of a disgrace to him and would prefer that he was not mentioned in his presence, but this was Steelwind, she talked about anything she wanted, whenever she wanted.

And if he objected, she did not take kindly to him and he wanted to avoid that.

Steelwind although not looking or seeming the type, was very much in the same strength and power category as his former master Megatron when in her mechanoid form. And even more so now as he knew she had the black orb with her. And although only had only known Steelwind and her crew for a short time, had learnt very quickly not to get on her bad side.

He vented out and let go of the irk and asked, "When are we going to retrieve Shadow?"

"Oh she'll come back on 'er own in due time, she always does."

Reignfire was not at all pleased with Steelwind's haphazard and flippant way of doing things. Steelwind had an annoying habit of being able to go with the chaotic flow and come out on top. He did not like the randomness but it always seemed to work for her and he was willing to give it a try no matter how annoying it was.

He watched as she sat down in her chair and propped her feet up on the rail to relax.

He sighed as she placed her hat over her face and promptly went to sleep and there was nothing else he could do but sit and wait.

"You completely forgot didn't you?" Someone asked.

"Yeah I did Laura, completely and utterly." Casey responded.

Casey accepted her presents dejectively.

"No need for you to give up that one day a year now is there!" Rusty commented in between celebrating with the other Autobots who had voluntarily come along as the group was so close by.

"Hey put me down!" Brawn growled at Rusty as she picked him up and spun him around.

"You're no fun!" Rusty mused as she put him down and went to grab Hound and Bluestreak instead.

Casey laughed. Rusty was doing all this on purpose to keep her in a good mood and it was working.

She had thought that a bunch of human friends with Rusty in tow were just going to sit and chat and help her work things out. But her friends had arranged a little soiree to take her mind off things completely.

Her main friends, Violet, Laura and Christine were talking elsewhere while Rusty was creating her own fun, dancing with those her size. Blaster was helping them, entertaining everyone with music. It gave Casey some time to herself to think.

Things really had changed for her in the last year. Not just for her but also for some people around her. But she was always grateful to her friends, always there when she needed them and even when she didn't.

One of her friends brought her out of her reverie.

Laura spoke first, "We have something else to give you…"

Christine interrupted, "More…to show you…"

Laura was agitated that she was interrupted and did the same to Christine, "But not here." She said, "Somewhere private."

Casey knew that as proper as Laura was with her speech, she was always as direct as she could be, she did not waste time nor over dramatized anything as Christine did.

Laura began to wander off up a path that led to the top of the mountain above the Autobot base where they were now having their get together and hinted at Casey to follow. While Christine followed behind the two.

"What was it you wanted to show me?" Casey asked curiously.

It was not like Laura to be so mysterious and she didn't know her to keep secrets, as the young entomologist in training had very little of a sense of humour or knew how to have much fun.

"This…" Christine blurted out before Laura was able to say anything.

Casey didn't understand what she meant, she couldn't see anything.

"Christine, please, I thought we agreed I would start this." Laura huffed at her friend.

Christine shrugged and looked at Casey, "Well?"

Casey looked from Christine to Laura and back again.

"Is this some kind of joke you two dreamed up or something?" She questioned. "What are you going on about?"

"She don' believe us?" Christine looked at Laura.

Laura sighed. "We would prefer if you kept this to yourself." Laura advised.

"Yeah we haven't painted ourselves or anythin'," Christine added, "It's real."

Casey still looked at both of them in a confused manner.

Laura and Christine then took off their jackets to show their arms and revealed more of what they both really were underneath and then transformed themselves completely.

Casey was both shocked and in awe of the fact that two of her other friends were also mecha like she was.

"How…how long have you two been like this?" Casey at first stammered then she angrily finished the rest of her words, "And why didn't you tell me?"

"A long time." Christine spoke. "Before we knew you."

"We had our reasons." Laura replied calmly, "We were, in a way, asked to wait for you to catch up."

The other two females had put away their mechanical expressions and were now looking like normal humans again.

Christine came over to lean on Laura's shoulder and said, "You just happen to be the youngest of all of us three, so we just waited ya know." Christine then moved to bend down to talk to Casey who was still mulling over what she had just been told. "If it makes ya feel any better kiddo, I'm the odd one out here. You're more like Laura and Violet than I am, I started out human and now I'm like this." She gestured to herself.

Casey was not taking it well. She didn't know for how long her friends had been keeping secrets from her and it made her feel so insecure.

"Let me ask you this?" Laura started, "Would you be feeling any better now having known your whole life we were what we are, feeling like the odd one out, or would you prefer to go through these feelings now after having discovered you are just like we are.?"

Casey was drawn out of her confusion for a moment. Laura always did make sense of things. She grumbled to herself

"Sorry, didn't hear that, just a little louder?" Christine mused.

Casey grumbled again and whacked her friend in the arm.

Christine laughed to herself, "Yep, she's almost back to normal!"

Francine had been rifling through various projects and items in her lab.

She had taken a break from some business work for the day to catch up her little experiments.

Everything had been very quiet of late. Heartbeat had not been around in a long while due to her workload in Cyberia. Galaxy had left to take care of some business in elsewhere and hadn't been seen for a week or so. And Aurora was only God knew where, and hadn't been seen since the Cybertron episode.

Not that Frankie minded, she worked just as well alone as she did with others, but Aurora was quite good to work with when she was here and didn't mind her loud music. Galaxy in her android form, not so much. She always complained about the noise and turned off the stereo altogether.

And Frankie didn't like it when people did that.

She had been working on her desk next to the medical lab when she heard an alarm sound from inside the other laboratory.

Curious as she was she couldn't help but go have a look.

She found a rather large amount of what appeared to be mist or fog emanating from a device that looked like it was large enough to hold a human form.

She bent over the edge of the compartment as it began to open and had a look.

Frankie was not all that surprised to find Rusty's old human body there.

She knew that Aurora had put it there, injected it with nanytes to keep it for as long as was needed for Rusty's sake. But why the computer was ejecting all this smoke and opening the compartment, she did not know.

"What is wrong?" A figure had come up to her quietly and startled Frankie.

She swung around quickly to face whoever it was and found Galaxy in her android form, Nikolyena.

"Geez!" Frankie panted, "Can't you tell someone you're there or something instead of scaring the life out of them!" Frankie huffed. "where the blazes did you come from anyway?"

Nikolyena raised a brow ridge but then that expression, as little as it was, quickly disappeared and was replaced with something else. She did not answer Francin and instead turned her attention to the device.

Francine could see a green light reflecting itself on her companions face and turned around to look back in the compartment. But not in enough time. She had to shield her eyes from the bright light and when she opened them again, there was nothing in the compartment any longer.

Nikolyena commented, "I wonder what it was about?"

Frankie looked also, "It's gone!" She remarked. "It's times like these that I wish Shadow was around to deal with these strange occurrences." She turned her attention to the dark purple haired scientist, 'I don't suppose you know anything about this."

"No." Was the flat response and Nikolyena simply turned around and walked back out of the room.

"Yeah you're about as useful as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs now aren't you." She murmured to herself.

Francine didn't know what else to do but leave the medical room. She could not find any more information on the computer about what had just happened so she had to leave it, even though her scientific curiosity was getting the better of her.

Better that she wait until Aurora was back and she could investigate then.

Elsewhere on the Autobot base.

On the way to his office.

Jazz was grateful for the fact his vision worked a little different to everyone else's. While on a visit to the twins living quarters, he had spied something he guessed they didn't want him to know about.

Even though he had pretended not to really care what the twisn were trying to hide at the time, he had been able to see plain as day, the mecha cat, that the twins had in their quarters.

It had some sort of cloaking device that was warping his light sensor but he could still see it for the most part, sitting on their couch, with not a care in the world.

The last time they had a pet with them, it was literally a disaster. Optimus had even gotten so annoyed at the twins and had banned them both from bringing any more animals into the base.

Although this mecha cat was not an organic animal like the one Sideswipe had had before, he technically wasn't breaking any directions he had been given by Optimus, as the ban was on organic animals.

Not that it mattered to Jazz right now.

He would wait and see how the twins dealt with the animal and step in before any damage was done if it looked like the cat would sway that way.

But it still made him wonder, where had the cat come from?

Then he had a thought.

Now if he had normal optical lenses, those would have gone wide in surprise.

He had just remembered a conversation he had had with Sideswipe when they were still on Cybertron.

Could the mecha cat be the little femme?

It didn't seem possible. Most mecha, the sparkborn ones he knew of, weren't even able to consider any kind of formatting or transformations until they were a certain age in their culture. Very similar to what the humans call coming of age into young adulthood. It signified that a mech or femme was ready to join the rest of society and not have to be relegated to a nursery or some kind of care any longer.

He had to think about it. He had no idea of the femmes age, and if she had advanced programming in her system then it would have been possible.

Sparkling physiology was not his strong suit nor his expertise, so he would have to consult Ratchet sometime later when he had the time.

Given the cat's now relative size he wasn't sure if it could be her or not, but it was very possible that it could be. If she was indeed a normal sparkling and was able to format herself and did not have the ability to shift her weight or mass just as most sparklings were not able to do, then the cat had a real possibility of being her.


	24. Chapter 24

*Part 24*

Yesterday in the twins quarters.

Sunstreaker came into the room to find the young femme he had previously found out about, lying on their floor, using his art equipment.

As angry as he was, he called out to his brother first, "Dammit Sides, I thought I told you, no more _pets_!"

Sunstreaker ignored the child's growls as he picked up his art items and began to put them away out of her reach.

He then wandered into the next room where both of them bunked and started yelling at him, "What's the idea bringing her in here? And," Sunstreaker raved on, "You let her use my stuff too…I?"

Sunstreaker was suddenly distracted by some drawings on the table Sideswipe was looking over.

"C'mon bro' I didn't see any harm in it, besides, look at all this!" Sideswipe gestured.

Sunstreaker had to admit that there was a lot of skill put into the finished artworks that were sitting on the table in front of Sideswipe. Including the ones that Sideswipe had in his hands, which appeared to be blueprints and architectural plans.

"What are those?" he asked curiously.

"Not really sure what they are of," Sideswipe pointed at the weird writing on the sheets, "I have no idea what this says so…"

"Hey guys, you in?" Came a call from outside the room.

"Jazz?" Sideswipe murmured.

"The kid?" Sunstreaker freaked.

Both of the twins rushed out into their entry room. They found the door to their room wide open and their female guest nowhere to be seen.

"Somethin' wrong guys?" The Lieutenant asked.

The twins were relieved that the femme wasn't there but also concerned as to where she had gone.

They were just as interested as to why their door was open as they knew Jazz would have been polite enough to buzz them from the door and wait.

"So the door was open when you arrived?" Sideswipe asked Jazz.

"Yeah, but I know how territorial you two are about your personal space so I just called out and waited." He replied.

Sunstreaker wondered about the door and began to look around for something. Jazz did notice but he pretended to be more interested in talking to Sideswipe. But he continud to watch the other twin while he was doing so.

"He lose somethin'?" He thumbed in the yellow warriors direction.

"Maybe. I don't know?" Sideswipe replied, knowing that his brother was probably looking for the femme.

Jazz knew the mech well enough to know he was covering something up, and that usually meant they had something in their quarters that they didn't want him to see. And he really didn't want to know about it either. So long it was no threat to anyone else on the base or to the Autobots mission here on Earth, he was fine to let it lie, just as he did with all the other crazy things Sideswipe was often involved in.

"Well I can see you boys'r busy so I'll talk t'ya later." He waved as he left. "I got a meetin' with Prime anyhow. Seeya!"

Both the twins locked their optics on the door as Jazz exited. Usually it closed behind others when they left, but it remained open for a little while before slowly closing.

"What was he snooping around for?" Sunstreaker snarled.

Sunstreaker didn't really trust many people, and even though he knew Jazz meant no harm, he was not very trusting of many officers at all.

"Easy there Sunny," Sideswipe tried to bring his brother down off his high horse, "He didn't mean anything by coming around." Sideswipe usually had to help his brother get his bearings back after an Officer paid a visit. "He was just checking in I guess. Knowing Jazz he probably already knows the kid is here on the base. Can't get much past him."

"At least Prowl is easier to hide things from." Sunstreaker grumped as he sat down on their oversized couched and crossed his arms.

"But not easy to tolerate if you cross him." Sideswipe often got nightmares about those times. "So what are we…huh."

Sideswipe had just been thinking about joining his brother for a seat on the couch when he tripped over something and fell flat on his faceplate, which was followed by Sunstreaker laughing his aft off at him.

"Not too embarrassing eh?" He said to his brother as he lifted his head.

Sunstreaker gestured behind him and Sideswipe turned his head slowly to see a mecha cat hissing at him for tripping over her.

"What are we going to do with her," Sunstreaker spoke, "She can't stay here."

The cat hissed even louder at Sunstreaker and promptly jumped onto Sideswipe's back and head.

"Ow!" Sideswipe cringed as the cat got its footing to stay where it was. "Looks like she wants to stay here!"

It wouldn't have been the first time that Rusty had woken up from a hangover because of an all night bender the day before. But even when she was still in a human body she never felt it like this. She was sore all over, but mostly very sore in her cranial casing and it was throbbing.

Since she had become a mechanical being, the effects of energon taken in large quantities did not affect her like large amounts of alcohol would affect a human, and this was her first warning sign that something might be wrong.

The second sign was that her cranial casing did not feel like her cranial casing.

It was not until she had absently put her hands on her head to feel where the throbbing was that she realised she had put her hands on a human head with long wavy hair not a metal cased helm that she realised something else was up.

She also did not realise how close to the edge of the Cybertronian sized cot she was, and as she turned herself over to run her fingers through her long red hair to marvel at its return, she fell off and landed on the floor with a very heavy thud.

The noise was enough to wake some of those snoozing nearby.

Her other human friends had been given some makeshifts sleeping arrangements in Rusty and Vanguard's temporary quarters, and not all were happy about being woken up.

"What's all the noise?" Someone called out.

It was shortly followed by a squeal and a whomp.

Rusty had tried to get up but had been bowled over by an overexcited Casey and was now back on the floor again.

"Can you at least let me stand up first?" She asked of her friend.

"This is so amazing!" Casey squealed, "I think I must still be dreaming!"

Just then, Rusty caught sight of a mirror and saw herself, "Well, you ain't dreamin' cause, no one but me looks this good!" Rusty exclaimed as she quickly got up and walked to the mirror to flex her muscles in front of it.

Laura had finally woken enough to drag herself out of her sleeping bag and get up to approach them. "How exactly did this happen?" She asked.

At the same time, Vanguard and Jazz walked in.

Having heard Laura's question, Vanguard adds, "That's something I would like to know?"

Rusty just smiles innocently and throws her hands up, "Got no idea? But I'm not goin' to complain." And she went back to admiring herself in the mirror.

Vanguard also looks at the clothes she is wearing, "In case you haven't noticed, those happen to be the same set of clothes you were wearing the day of your car accident."

Rusty looks down at her high cut mini skirt and low cut bikini like top and grins, "Guess you're right there. I wonder how that happened?"

Vanguard answers, "Well this obviously has something to do with Shadow, and since she isn't around right now…" She paused and looked at Jazz.

He had not said one thing during this whole conversation and was taking all this strangeness in with a grain of salt.

"Well it's Mond'y mornin'. Ol'Brawn'll be waitin' on Rusty for 'elp with cleanin' the main storeroom." Jazz said simply.

"The question is," Vanguard responded, "Is Rusty still Rusty. Without Shadow to look in on her medical status, I don't know if she is as she was before, only in a different sized body..." Vanguard turned away from Jazz and leant down to squat in front of Rusty. When the red head became quizzical, Vanguard offered some assurance, "I just want to check out something."

Rusty scrutinised the white femme. She knew Vanguard had certain abilities and if she was still a machine on the inside, she was not all that happy having herself read. "What are you goin' to do?"

"Just a simple read, it won't interfere with anything else."

Rusty knew what to expect now. It had taken a little to remember what Vanguard was going on about. She had seen Vanguard do this when she was still human well over a year ago. All it involved was ascertaining information about the current state of something, kind of like an electromagnetic X-ray.

The now human looking individual reluctantly gave up her hands, but instead, Vanguard went for her forehead. The white femme placed a single digit and did her scan.

Rusty was grateful it did not take long and did not feel anything either and so let go of her feelings of recalcitrance. "Well?' She asked.

"All mechanical on the inside. Everything seems like it will be fine, but then I am no medical expert." She turned to Jazz and said, "She should be fine to do the work with Brawn but maybe you should take her by Ratchet's office first? I don't doubt Ratchet's ability to deal with all the strangeness our lot has been dumping on the Autobots of late, but even I feel this may be beyond him, still there is no harm in getting him to look."

"Ol' Ratch' might 'ave a field day with this one then!" Jazz mused.

"I'll stay on and help out Brawn while that's happening if you want." Vanguard suggested. "I don't have anything else planned today."

"No issues with me either." He commented and then turned to the red headed human, "Well li'l lady, shall we take a walk?"

Rusty shrugged and then fell in with Jazz as he left the room. She called back to her friends as she was leaving and said, "Be back soon, shouldn't take too long."

Elsewhere on the base.

Brawn was grumbling to himself that he was stuck doing all the work. It had been organised that the strong red femme was going to help him as Optimus couldn't spare a second person.

But she was rather late,

' _Probably overcycled again!'_ He thought to himself.

He had been relatively lucky to come out of their last scuffle with the Decepticons unscathed and Ratchet was working overtime as usual with only Wheeljack for help to work on and watch over all those still in the Medical bay.

He had actually been looking forward to working with Rusty. Many of the Autobots thought she was good looking but then they all knew that she knew it too and loved the attention.

It had been even better that Optimus had agreed to a decision to let Rusty work with them as a civilian, helping out with grunt work around the base as it took a lot of slack off of heavy work for him and gave him and several of the others more spare time.

"Need a hand?" Came a voice to snap Brawn out of his reverie.

He turned around to find a femme, but not who he was expecting.

Brawn looked at Vanguard confused.

"Sorry she couldn't make it, medical issues." Vanguard told him as she went to help him move a heavy box by lifting it up with her gliding capability and move it along just above the floor.

"I just bet it did." Brawn complained. Not that he minded Vanguard's company. She was much easier to get along with than his compatriot Prowl, who just happened to be her bondmate.

"So why do they want to collate all the stock?" Vanguard asked.

"Seems things have been going missing. Prowl's first thought was that maybe Sideswipe was up to his pranks again with all the business that had been going on lately."

Vanguard remembered that for all that had been going on lately, Sideswipe had an alibi for each one and it had stumped Prowl to no end. "Yeah that!" She snickered.

Brawn ignored her and continued, "So we have to go through each storeroom and mark off what we have, try an' find out what's goin' on. Maybe set up some traps if we do have an unknown thief."

By that time though, Vanguards attention was elsewhere. She had picked up the EM thought processor trails of something in the room. "We are the only two in here right?"

Brawn became curious and stopped what he was doing. "Yeah, why?"

"It's not Mirage that's cloaked, I know his thought patterns, it's someone else." She paused and thought then turned her attention to Brawn.

Vanguard was right in assuming that there was something else in the room, not just a something but actually, a someone.

The stealthy invader in question was just sneaking around gathering some items for itself and was on its way out when Brawn had come in previously and blocked its departure. It was the only way out as there was no overhead shafts it could reach easily and quietly with another in the room.

It had stayed for a while hoping the door would open again or this mech would go away, and it had missed the opportunity when the silver femme had arrived suddenly and blocked the doorway for too long.

Vanguard had thinned her optics, pretending not to notice the individual when it had tried to pass by right behind her undetected towards the door that she had opened on purpose, making it look like she was leaving. "Gotcha!"

When Vanguard grabbed the invader, its stealth shield faltered for a moment out of surprise. It was long enough for her to grab and then surround it in her force shield and capture it.

"Anyone…you know…?" Vanguard asked as she struggled to keep a full, strong shield around the small mechanoid.

"No." Brawn said, "But I think I know someone who might. Jazz mentioned a small femme they ran into on Cybertron. I wonder if it's the same one?"

Later, in the detention area.

"But Optimus do you have any idea what a rampant sparkling can do on a base like this?" Red Alert warned, "We should send her back to Cybertron, where she belongs."

Not very many knew about the femme from Cybertron, and those that did not before, knew now as Jazz had filled them in after identifying her for the Command team.

"As much as I would agree with you Red Alert," The red Ferrari beamed at Prowl agreeing with his statement, but then he suddenly frowned, "I would have to agree with Optimus."

Ratchet had also come to see what the issue was and given his opinion. "I agree that she should be watched by those who can protect her, question is by who? There are a lot of dangers on this base, and that's just not from weapons and the like." He glances over at Wheeljack who was standing next to him.

"What are you looking at me for?" The Scientist asked his friend, having guessed at what Ratchet had just implied.

Outside the room Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were peaking in to see what was going on.

"They better not blame me for this, I had nothing to do with it." The yellow Lamborghini stated adamantly. "Besides you're the one who's been keeping her as a pet." He scoffed, "Not me."

"So if they find that out, you're just going to let me take all the blame?" Sideswipe retorted, "Some brother you are!"

"You told me Jazz knew you were keeping her and he hadn't said anything. I didn't have anything to do with it to begin with anyway and neither of us smuggled her here from Cybertron, she found her way to Earth on her own."

"So you think we have nothing to worry about?" Sideswipe glanced at the gathered officers in the room.

Both of them had not realised that the group had moved while they continued to talk amongst themselves and then flattened themselves against the wall when they departed and stood at attention for the officers.

Red Alert and Prowl both gave the twins a scrutinising look as they passed, unsure if they were up to something or not, but did not stay to question them and so the twins vented a sigh of relief when they continued walking down the hall going elsewhere.

It was not long before the others attempted to leave also. But their departure was cut short by an almighty blast that originated from the detention cell where the young femme had just been.

Optimus was the first to rise.

He got his bearings together and adjusted his optics. He had been the closest to the cell when the bomb had gone off and had taken the brunt of the blast, but it had not kept him down long and had only left superficial injuries.

Once he was on his peds, he looked around the room.

The twins had been somewhere close by and had come racing in to help Ratchet with the others.

Optimus noticed that Ratchet was unharmed and already working to help and so turned his attention elsewhere. He quickly glanced into the cell and found it empty.

"What happened here?" Prowl exclaimed as he came racing back with the noise.

Red Alert had been right behind him and looked around in wonderment and for once found nothing he could say about this.

Ratchet paused from his check of Wheeljack after helping his friend to his peds and added. "While the twins are here, we should use them to go after the femme and get her back here while the rest of us find out what happened."

Sunstreaker, having heard the suggestion, growled internally at being dragged into this.

"That seems fair enough." Optimus agreed with Ratchet. He turned to the twins and asked them, "You two go after the femme and take Jazz with you, see what you can find out. Get her back in one piece without harming her."

"And we'll sift through what's left of the Detention centre." Prowl added, who was already looking through the rubble with Red Alert.

"Thankfully there were no Decepticons here today to deal with if they had broken out too." Red Alert mumbled to himself.

"And for once Wheeljack didn't cause this!" Ratchet mused.

"Hey!" Wheeljack whacked Ratchet in the arm.

When Jazz and the twins were outside, the Leiutenant motioned to them, "No need t'worry guys, didn't say a word 'bout you two having the femme with you before now. But after this, y'might have to make mention o'somethin', 'kay?"

"I told you she would be trouble!" Sunstreaker warned.

"Like you even know what it's like to have a pet?" Sideswipe ribbed his brother.

"Well at least I don't adopt troublemaking sparklings as pets!" The yellow Lamborghini scoffed.

Sideswipe was just about to whomp his brother for being a stuck up stick in the mud when Jazz got their attention.

They had tracked the femme about half a mile south of the base and had finally caught up to her in the surrounding bushlands, but by the sounds of it, something else had caught up to her first.

As they rounded on the commotion, what came into sight was a bit of a surprise. There were two mechanical cats eying each other in a noisy, snarling standoff.

One was a small cat, about the size of a Great Dane and the other was a very large black animal the size of an elephant. One they all recognised as being on the base previously.

"Ain't that Shadow's pet cat, the black one?" Jazz mentioned.

"Yeah?" Sunstreaker answered, "What is it doing out here?"

"Looks like its tryin' t'drive th'little cat somewhere?" Jazz noticed.

Just as the large black cat was attempting to do as Jazz had suggested, the small silver and gold cat got away from it, made a run straight towards them and transformed to hide itself right behind Sideswipe.

"This' really turnin' out t'be an in'erestin' day!" Jazz exclaimed to himself as he cocked his photonic rifle and aimed it at the black cat now standing and hissing in front of them, poised and ready for attack.

"So when do we shoot?" Sunstreaker had his own Electron Pulse weapon at the ready, due to the fact his brother had now become the black cats target.

The black cat was more than a match physically for more than the amount of Autobots that was presently in front of it, but that was not what it was here for.

It had come here for its own reasons. But at the same time it was also frustrated due to waiting for its master to return. It had come searching and found it here quite by accident, finding its Masters' appearance puzzling and its actions strange, it had been attempting to herd it elsewhere when the Autobots had shown up and interrupted.

Jazz did not want to shoot the beast machine as it had not yet done anything. He was trying to come up with another solution when an idea popped into his cranial capacitors. He had remembered that the black cat had a name, at least it was what someone had called it when it was in the base last.

"You're called Deathtrap, ain't'ya?" He asked, lowering his gun and subspacing it, then he took a big chance and stepped forward slowly with his digits outstretched.

"Jazz I don't think that's such a good idea?" Sideswipe called out.

"Like you would know?" Sunstreaker ribbed his brother, "Look at all the stupid ideas you've ever had!"

The cat ignored Jazz as he creeped closer to it and turned its attention to the twins, specifically to red mech and the little silver and gold femme hiding behind it.

It let out a deafening roar at the three and started making demands on their internal communications systems.

The three Autobots were still reeling from the sudden noise when they received the voice on the comms.

' _Return that which does not belong to you.'_ The voice said.

The Autobots looked at each other startled. The voice did not belong to any Autobot comrade of theirs that they recognised. What had surprised them was the fact that it was a secure line that someone had broken through and for just a moment they had looked at each other in disbelief thinking the voice had come from the black cat.

When they all looked at the cat in unison once more, again it roared and repeated the demand.

Before Jazz or the twins could answer for themselves though, the young femme caught their attention. She had suddenly clutched her head casing with the sound of the last roar and had only now gotten her bearings back.

She stood up straight and turned to the black cat and said a steadfast "No," to the beast cat.

This incited the cat to become agitated and it ran at Sideswipe. The red twin did not know what else to do but pick up the young femme and move out of the way.

As much as the cat was agitated by what it saw was its Masters' refusal to come home it just suddenly stopped and sat down and all fours and lowered its head into its outstretched paws, making pleading noises.

The young femme squirmed in Sideswipe's arms and he reluctantly put her down.

Sideswipe stepped forward on his peds in an attempt to follow her, but both Jazz and his brother stopped him.

"This' b'tween these two, let it be for now." Jazz said to him.

They all watched on as the two feline mecha appeared to converse.

The young femme approached the black cat and folded her arms in defiance.

When the black cat whined, she answered it. "Not now. Stay here."

The cat was not happy with the answer it was given, it sprung onto its feet and roared louder than before right into the young femmes face, which did not faze her in the slightest.

In the background, Jazz and Sunstreaker were still holding back Sideswipe and let him go when the cat stopped its noise. They watched as he ran over to help the femme.

Up until now, the others could not hear their conversation. Sideswipe caught an adamant "Go." From the young femme as he came over to her and picked her up.

Jazz and Sunstreaker had followed Sideswipe as they thought he would get himself into trouble, but as luck would have it, the black cat left without a fuss and walked away dejectedly into the scrub.

"What was all that about?" Sunstreaker said.

"Don' know but right now, 'least the kid is ok." Jazz smiled. He reached out to pat her on the helm and she used her free hands to block him.

"Don't touch." She snarled as Jazz recoiled his hand.

"Jus' bein' friendly kid, no harm meant." Jazz put his hands up in surrender.

The femme scoffed and then tried to squirm out of Sideswipe's arms. He let her go and watched the femme wander off in the direction of the Autobot base. "Name not _kid_." She said flatly, before she transformed into her cat mode and ran off.

"What in the Pit was that all about?" Sunstreaker questioned.

Jazz knew he was referring to the recent situation and even he didn't have an explanation for it. He felt it was just another one of those weird events that have happened of late since all these strange femmes from only Primus knew where, were showing up from.

"Guess all we can do is tell Prime when we get back." He motioned to both of them to follow him as he transformed and drove off.

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were both reluctant to go straight away and talked between themselves for a while before following along also.

Little did they know that the large black mechanical cat had not gone very far.

It had made it look like it had left but then come back cloaked and watched the group depart.

A voice on its internal comms. broke its vigilant reverie. _'See I told you she wouldn't come. Just let things be, she'll come back when she feels she needs to.'_

The cat snarled at the voice then sat down and whined for its master.

The voice spoke again. _'Did she suspect why you were there?'_

The black mecha cat, Deathtrap did not want to believe what she had experienced but wanted to see for herself what was going on.

' _Not pleasant.'_ Was all the cat communicated on its internal systems.

' _Well if y'ain't 'appy with the outcome, find some other way t'stay out there an' watch. I don't care if y'do, just don't keep milling around 'ere an' whining about it. We'll call ya if y'needed ok.'_

Deathtrap had not even thought of that. She had often used her special skills to blend into her environment for the last four million years. She thought that this would be another one of those times, despite the fact she would only be observing.

She knew that another mecha femme disguised as a human was closeby, living on the nature reserve and so she scanned the area, looking at all the animals there, finding a disguise that would be appropriate.

What made Wraiths different from their fellow Cybertronian Transformers was that they could keep multiple transformations and change between then without needing to go back to their root mode. And the techno-organic nature of their substructure was what made that possible.

Once she found a suitable form, the metal of her armour plating began to melt somewhat and change the shape and size of her form. What was left when it was done was a scruffy and mangy looking black wolf.

She huffed once and then disappeared under her stealth shield once again.

Three individuals had been watching Deathtrap when she had disappeared under her shield.

Steelwind had thought it necessary to give Deathtrap ideas about what to do. She had found it hard to keep those who were concerned about Shadow's welfare out of the young femme's way till she returned back home.

She and her two companions watched for a little while as they tracked the disguised cat. Then turned to each other.

"Are you two going to leave well enough alone now and let her come home on her own?" She asked of them. One of them lifted a hand to speak and Steelwind cut him off before he could even finish a word. "Just let Deathtrap take care of the watchin'. Leave Shadow be until she is ready to come back on her own and in 'er own way. You two may want 'er back but y'will have t'wait."

Steelwind wandered off. Her two cpompanions weren't inclined to question here judgement on the matter. Well, moreso one of them, he knew exactly what disobeying his parole officer could lead to, the other was still learning.

She turned and faced both of them as she activated her teleportation field and left, "Remember, leave 'er alone." As she disappeared into a shadow behind a tree.

Reignfire and Sunstorm turned and looked at each other and the older mech had caution the ypounger one about any ideas he might have had or wanting to cross Steelwind's decision. Reignfire knew better.

He had had the unfortunate experience of knowing what that was like and did not want his offspring to have to live through that.

Steelwind was generally a placid, laid back and easy going individual, but even Reignfire knew she could be very bad when she was angered enough or others either didn't listen when given instructions or turned on her. She could be just as much a crazed, fuel thirsty and a battle hungry maniac as his old master Megatron and as loathe as he was to admit it, her furious ferocity when angered scared him.

And Reignfire did not want that. He had worked long and hard to get where he was now considering where he had been before.

"Are you satisfied now?" Reignfire asked his companion.

Sunstorm did no not respond straight away but hesitated and thought first on what Reignfire had just said.

"So you suppose that if I had just listened to her to begin with and left well enough alone that we would not be in this position as we are."

Reignfire knew that as intelligent as his offspring was, he was also very headstrong. He would try and listen to his father but his programming also made him strike out on his own and went his own way on occasion.

Just like it had now.

It had not been the first time the mech had become curious about a younger sibling he had never known and had supposedly had something to do with his resurrection.

His want to investigate though had led to this. It had also led to the Wraith following him and Steelwind having to get involved.

Steelwind had managed to get the large cat to listen and create a deliberate display to satisfy itself because she wouldn't believe what Steelwind had told her. But then she had had to deal with Sunstorm, who had been responsible for the cats actions and Reignfire who had gone along to make sure there was no trouble.

Steelwind knew that there would have been other reasons for the old General for going along, but considering his personality, he would have sincerely just gone along just to see that his other offspring was alright.

Out of all her 'clients' he was the most faithful at trying to change his life for the better and do something with himself rather than create deliberate trouble like most of the others.

This was what allowed him some measure of freedom more than others, and he did not want to lose it.

He and Sunstorm looked off into the distance with the eyes of their human like forms and turned for home when they were finally satisfied with what was before them.

Inside the Autobots base.

"You've been hiding her for how long?" Ratchet screamed at Sideswipe.

The red Lamborghini cringed and looked down at the ground, seeming more interested at kicking invisible pieces of scrap with his one ped than wanting to meet Ratchet's infuriated gaze.

"Ratchet please, I'm sure Sideswipe has an explanation for his actions." Optimus tried to reason, but he had to find out what was going on beyond all of Ratchet's yelling.

"I'm sure he has quite a logical explanation for everything." Prowl scowled at Sideswipe also, recounting how many official regulations Sideswipe had broken just for having her here without permission.

Optimus wasn't angry. In fact, despite remembering the instructions he had given Sideswipe before, he knew he had specifically said no biological pets and Sideswipe had adopted a mechanical one.

"Well, let's hear this excuse then?" Ratchet scowled at the red twin.

"You see, it's like this…" Sideswipe began his story.


	25. Chapter 25

*Part 25*

It had been sometime since the Autobots had decided to let the little femme stay with them, instead of sending her somewhere else like they had with the other youths, she had ended up staying on the Autobot base.

But the little femme wasn't so little anymore.

As Sunstreaker no doubt discovered.

He was still in the process of starting up most of his systems again from a recharge and was still not paying full attention. He had come out into the entry area of the shared room with his brother, where there was a somewhat Earth style lounge with a full entertainment unit.

But he had to readjust his optics when he looked at the lounge. For a moment he had thought he had seen a black foot sitting up on top of the couch and when he went to have a closer look, there was something there that was even more of a surprise.

Shadow was groggy herself. She was beginning to recollect recent events that had happened while she was away and also process her own memories at the same time and it was giving her a nasty headache from the information overload. Sometime the night before she had powered down as her smaller, silver and gold self and now she had awoken as her adult black armoured self. Whatever damage her body had been suffering for the last few months, had finally rectified itself and she was now coming around.

She wasn't expecting to come online and see another persons face. She freaked out even more when she realised she was somewhere she didn't really remember being and called out, then fell onto the floor when she tried to get away from this person.

Sideswipe was just wiping his faceplate down after getting off his recharge cot and heard the noise. Without thinking first, he took his photon rifle out of subspace and ran out into the entry area looking for trouble.

What he saw confused him. He wasn't expecting the black femme.

"Meridian?" He asked confused, putting his gun away again.

The black femme got herself up off the floor, looked at him and scoffed, "Don't call me that." She turned to Sunstreaker, "And get this thing away from me. I have more pleasant things to think about than wake up looking at that!" She shoved him aside as she went past him to the door of the quarters to get out.

Sideswipe snickered for a moment, but then went to deter the femme from leaving.

"Speak for yourself." Sunstreaker said back to her in a surly tone.

She spoke, "Then I guess we're both ugly as the pit." She retorted in an attempt to get under his chassis.

"Look who's calling who ugly." Sunstreaker spat.

The comment did rile the yellow mech up and Sideswipe had to step between the two. She glared right back at Sunstreaker while Sideswipe talked him down.

"C'mon bro' don't worry about it!" He said as he tried to calm him.

"Lucky for you, I have to go and start my patrol shift." Sunstreaker snarled as he left.

Sideswipe vented out, "You know you really shouldn't rile him up like that, he can get a bit… _nasty_." The red mech emphasised the last word.

"Do I look like I even care?" Shadow responded.

"Well you look like something…" Sideswipe noted shaking his head casing, "But, I don't know what to make of this." He gestured to her.

She crossed her arms and huffed to herself. "Just don't go calling me Meridian." And she all but confirmed for Sideswipe that she was the silver and gold femme.

Sideswipe indicated first a shorter size then a larger size, "How did you get from this to this?"

"Nanotechnology." Was all she would say. She then went and turned towards the door. "I'm leaving."

Sideswipe followed her out the door trying to get her to stay, "You don't want to stick around?"

Shadow stopped and vented out. She didn't like to try being nice to or open with others but with all her memories coming in now, she had recalled Sideswipe watching out for her while she was smaller. "Thanks." She said to him, and then she disappeared into a shadowed wall.

"For what?"

Sideswipe felt at a loss to her disappearance. He was very fond of the little silver and gold femme. Her company had been a lot more fun than his brother. And while he had no real explanation as to how she had changed into the surly black femme, she had somewhat admitted to it being her. But…now Sideswipe wanted her back again, he didn't care what she looked like now.

"Lose somethin' red?" Jazz asked as he passed him in the hall.

It was enough to break him out of his reverie, "Oh hey Jazz."

"Y'good red, y'look like y'just lost somethin' real important?"

Sideswipe told him what had happened.

"…So yeah that about sums it up." Sideswipe finished.

"She kinda grows on ya, don' she!" Jazz mused, thinking about his own time with Shadow when they had first met her.

"I guess she does!" The red Lamborghini lamented.

Jazz would have spent more time talking to Sideswipe about what had just happened but he had somewhere to be and someone to visit and he left the red mech to his thoughts.

"Took ya long enough, it's been months?" Wynona commented upon seeing who had just walked into her farmhouse kitchen.

Aurora said nothing as she went past down to the music room at the end of the hall so she could be alone.

Wynona followed her and leaned against the door frame.

"What?" She questioned the older female.

"Di'n say nothin' kid?" She replied.

"But I know you will." Aurora murmured to herself.

"Yes!" Wynona sat down next the younger female, crossed one leg over the other and leant back with her arms behind her head in the plush armchair. "So you gon' tell me who it is y'like or do 'ave t'tickle it outta ya!"

Aurora got up quickly and moved away from Wynona when she made a move towards her. "Like slag you will."

Wynona burst out laughing. Aurora growled at her.

"Look if y'that worried 'bout it, then distract y'self with the red one. It is the red one you like ain't it? He looks like th'casual type anyway." Wynona mused. Aurora didn't even need to tell her anything about her conflicted emotions because of the bond they shared through Wynona's black orb. They had no secrets from each other, the orb wouldn't let them. It liked both and let them share that connection even when they did not want to. But both had over time learnt to block each other out on occasion and Wynona often asked things just to get them out in the open for the sake of it. "It's been too long since y'had some fun out there, as least as long as it's been since y'lost Sky Strike. An' just 'cause sunshine looks exactly like him don' mean y'can't still be around 'em..."

"That's not what I'm worried about." Aurora interrupted.

"Well then, move on, stop mullin' over it. Y'been sayin' f'years you don' blame y'self for his death, time t'start beleivin' it and get over it."

"Oh that's great stuff comin' from the Queen of all hang ons?"

"My issue is different." Wynona snapped.

"How can having a thing for ol' bucket head be different?" Aurora argued.

"Coz' we're tryin t'kill each other." Wynona smirked.

"Shame he hasn't succeeded." Aurora murmured to herself, which got her a clip across the back of the head by Wynona.

Aurora was momentarily distracted by her phone vibrating in her pocket. Jazz had sent her a message. _'Sideswipe said ya made an appearance, nice to see ya back Shades!'_

Aurora looked from her phone to Wynona and sighed.

Wynona snickered to herself. "Won' matter how many times y'change th'codin' on y'phone, he will find a way past it."

"Then you should stop helping him." Aurora accused her elder. "I know you've been spending a lot of time with him. You're no better than what the human's call their older femmes, what was it? A cougar?" Aurora knew the particular coding to protect her device was unique to her ingenuity and intelligence and the only other one who could even hope to get past it was Wynona. And being that she knew what Wynona had been doing lately, it was openly suspect she had been helping Jazz to keep in contact with the younger femme.

"Well we all need t'socialise. An' since they know 'bout us now, there's no 'arm in a little fun now is there eh?"

"You're as bad as Rusty." Aurora said flatly as she put her music gear away and left. "Worse even."

Wynona followed her out and silently murmured, "'T'least I've got some taste."

She noticed Aurora had taken the keys to her silver Corvette Stingray instead of her black Reventon for once. All of Aurora's cars, bar her Reventon, were technologically keyed to be able to drive themselves under Aurora's control and the silver Corvette stopped and opened a door for Aurora when it arrived in front of the house after exiting from the showroom down the road.

Aurora gave Wynona a last gruff look before she left and said, "I'm going out."

Wynona waited as she drove off, almost running a white Porsche off the driveway in her haste.

"She in a mood or somethin'?" Jazz asked after transforming outside the farmhouse porch.

"No more'n usual." Wynona coughed choking on the dust being riled up in the air. "Oh an' she knows 'bout a few things too."

Jazz put two and two together and shrugged, shifting into his Pretender shell and stepping up to the porch next to Wynona and put his arm around her as she turned to go inside.

"It ain't like we're tryin' t'hide anything anyway, we all have needs don' we?"

Wynona smiled back at the saboteur as she closed the front door behind her.

Weeks later, Autobot base.

Rusty and Violet had now started to settle into their new roles as recruits at Mt St Hilary at Autobot Headquarters on Earth.

While today, Violet was out on a training exercise with the Aerialbots, Rusty was working with some others on the base to unload Skylynx and greet some new visitors from Cybertron.

Ultra Magnus had come for some face to face business to discuss with Optimus Prime. He also had four others with him, Hot Rod, Blurr, Drift and Chromia.

"Hey Hot Rod," Drift warned, "You better watch out!"

The white mech could only wince as his friend was too busy talking to Blurr and didn't see a tall red femme step in front of him and he slammed right into her and fell with a thud to the floor.

Hot Rod was disoriented as he was lifted with two hands from the floor onto his peds again.

"Sorry. Wasn't paying attention," He mused to himself before his optics readjusted and saw who lifted him up. "Uh, hello!"

"Hello yourself handsome!" Rusty flickered a single optic at him before she turned to get back to her work.

Ultra Magnus had stopped to watch what was going on and noticed Brawn and Huffer off to one side sitting on a box, "Should you two not be helping also?" He queried.

Both of the mini-bots had slowed down their work and gradually let Rusty take on a lot of the heavier materials. Brawn was loathe to admit that the femme was stronger than he was but she never complained about the work and often volunteered to do work for him. Not that he was a slacker by any means, he just liked watching her work, as did many of the other mechs on the base.

Both the min-bots cleared their vocalisers and a "Yes Sir" was heard before they rejoined the tall femme.

Optimus Prime and Prowl had joined them and Optimus greeted the visitors.

"Is there any more like her?" Hot Rod questioned.

"I don't think that is an appropriate enquiry Hot Rod." Ultra Magnus answered him.

Prowl interjected, "The other femme is on a training patrol with the Aerialbots. She isn't as…sociable, as this one."

It was the most polite word he could come up with considering some of the activities Rusty had been engaged in of late. He was not going to judge her, but he still had issues with the morality of her actions, among other things that had also occured.

Ultra Magnus' entourage moved off downstairs into the Autobots Earth Base with Prowl to get acquainted while Ultra Magnus himself stayed behind to talk to Optimus. Both continued to watch Rusty.

"I was concerned when you gave me the report about this one and the other…Violet, I think her name was?" Ultra Magnus had trouble pronouncing the word as it was unusual, not something from the Cybetronian language he felt, more the Earthen language.

"There are others but these two are the only recruits," Optimus began, "But as luck would have it, the uh…leader of the rest of them is here today with other visitors."

"Oh and who might that be?" The tall Cybertronian asked.

"The one you took such a dislike to on Cybertron some time ago."

"Lone Star?" Ultra Magnus' optics widened in surprise, "This is where she is hiding? After she disappeared from that room on Cybertron, I wasted resources looking for her on the planet but she was not to be found!"

"If it makes you feel any better, she has never been on this base unescorted. Red Alert is of the same mind of your reports about the femme and will not leave her alone anywhere. But she has never set ped out of place while here."

"Why is she here?"

"There was an issue with some sort of drone that has been keeping Skydive's company since he returned from his jaunt. Lone Star, or Steelwind as we know her and one of her associates has knowledge of old Cybertronian language and technology and is attempting to either communicate with the drone or get it functional again out of a favour to Skydive." Optimus explained. He did not know the full storybut as he was waiting for the full report from Ratchet and Wheeljack, he could only explain as best he could for the time being.

Elsewhere in the Medical bay.

"Dial down the scrolling speed, I can't keep up with the dialogue on the screen?"

Heartbeat had come in response to a request from Shadow and Steelwind to help with this project. She was way out of her league here technologically but it was still a learning experience for her and an opportunity she would not ordinarily get.

"You see what I'm seeing right?" Shadow questioned.

Heartbeat gave her a sideways look. "Do _I_ not have optics, of course I can see _that_ , but do I understand it? No. I do not speak ancient Cybertronian nor can I understand these lines of code?"

Ratchet and Wheeljack could only step back and watch. While they were both knowledgeable in various forms of both medical and technological engineering relating to Cybertronians and their physiology, what these femmes were doing here in front of them was way beyond anything they'd ever seen before.

"It all looks like a bunch of Hocus Pocus if you ask me." Ratchet scowled.

Wheeljack knew he was still sore for being told to get out of the way and let the femmes do their thing. And they had told him off in his own Medical bay of all places too, which made him even more sour than usual.

"Well at least we get to watch and learn." Wheeljack tried to cheer his friend up. Ratchet scoffed at the whole ordeal and retreated back into his office.

But just as he was about to enter, a clanging noise was heard behind him.

"Somethin' jus' fell out'f its subspace pocket?" Steelwind cautioned them. She didn't even know why she had been dragged into this mess and was sitting off to the side bored, but took notice when some small metal ring fell and began to roll towards Ratchet. But neither of the other two femmes had heard her and were too entrenched in what they were doing to hear or see anything else.

The metal ring rolled right up to Ratchet and stopped when it hit the outside edge of his left ped. He stopped before entering his office and turned around to pick it up.

Wheeljack would not forget the look on his friends face when he began to read an inscription on the inside of the metal ring. He watched intently as his friend dropped the ring and put one hand on the doorframe and the other over his face and was barely able to reach him before Ratchet collapsed onto his knee guards.

"Wha's 'happened t'him?" Steelwind asked.

"I have no idea actually?" Wheeljack struggled with his heavier friends frame, "I saw him read something from the ring and then down he went?"

Shadow and Heartbeat were still so caught up in what they were doing that they didn't even bat an optic at what was now happening behind them.

Once Steelwind helped Wheeljack with Ratchet onto his office chair, she went and retrieved the ring Ratchet had dropped. It was a nicely made and intricately woven piece of jewellery, like the sort of thing a female human would wear if married to another, but it was Cybertronian sized. Made out of Electrum, platinum and some other metal Steelwind did not recognize. On the bottom part of the ring where all the metals were melded together seemlessly was a simple message in Cybetronian that read "For my Sweet Spark."

"Y'know what this is, don'ya Wheeljack?" Steelwind passed the item to him.

"It looks like some sort of bonding ring?" Wheeljack was unsure, "Isn't it?"

Ratchet found the strength to respond, albeit rather quietly, "I made it for Sunburst for our bonding ceremony. I…" Then he abruptly stopped as if sinking into a deeper state of shock and slumped further into his chair.

Wheeljack had never seen his friend this bad when talking of his dearly departed bondmate. "Is it even possible?" He looked at the drones body. It had been badly damaged during the last fight with the Decepticons. Skydive had taken it along as extra security and it had proved it usefulness till something had happened and it had been hit during the battle itself and it was now in this state.

Ratchet and Wheeljack had done the best they could to fix it for Skydive but had wrestled with somewhat older programming than they knew of and had not been able to get it online again and so it had sat in the Medical bay, until one day when they were working on it, Shadow had commented on recognizing the code streams of its mind and offered to help fix it along with some help.

Steelwind left the CMO's office and pushed Heartbeat aside to access a screen and began typing an interaction algorithm to communicate with the drones memories directly.

"Hey what was that for?" Heartbeat angrily prostrated.

"I think I know who it is." Steelwind typed away.

"Are you sure?" Shadow added, "Is it anyone we know?"

"I don' know 'er person'lly, but I believe y'do?" Steelwind answered.

Shadow watched as Steelwind typed away in what appeared to be ancient Cybetronian words and then asked one question, 'Identify?'

The answer on the screen was one name, 'Sunburst'.

Later.

"Is he back online yet?" Shadow asked Wheeljack.

"No." The scientist answered, "It seems he is still in a state of shock about the ring. I haven't even told him about the drone being who it seems to be yet."

Shadow had not even mentioned her connection to the femme with that name yet. She wasn't even sure if Wheeljack knew about her connection to Ratchet either. The Medic suspected her identity, but when she was reverted to her sparkling self she did not recall ever conversing with Ratchet about anything from the past. When she had woken up as her adult self again her memories had shifted and opened up more.

She had fragments of memory from an early time during the war when she was in the company of two other, Ratchet and Sunburst, both medics, who had adopted and looked after her for a while before tragedy separated her from them and that's all she could remember.

While she had been thinking to herself, Wheeljack had wandered off and started talking to Optimus who came in to talk to Ratchet after being called by the Scientist. Optimus and Ratchet had been friends a very long time and he knew the femme to which the name belonged and he also knew the story behind Ratchets past.

He immediately went into the Medic's office to talk with him. Wheeljack remained outside.

Shadow had stopped and sat for a moment. When she had remembered the name of the person inside the drone body she had almost collapsed herself. But she retained her composure long enough to bark some instructions at Heartbeat.

The younger femme didn't like being talked to that way, but she understood some raw memories had just been opened and Shadow was not herself. She complied with the other femme's wishes by returning to Shadows workshop in Cyberia for the things she had asked for.

Shadow had tried to save time by asking Heartbeat to fetch the only complete femme body she had in storage that she thought would be compatible for the idea she had in mind.

When Heartbeat returned she asked Shadow, "Why this one? It's a warriors body. Didn't you say this lost femme was a scientist or a medic?"

"I…don't know, it's just that, something is pulling at me to use that one. I think it will be appropriate."

Heartbeat saw a rare honest smile on the femme's face and she didn't argue. She had known the femme for most to all of her own life and knew she did not have much to smile about given her past, the parts she did know of anyway.

So she didn't say anything as she helped Shadow set the new body up for a transfer.

CMO's Office.

Ratchet had finally come around and was sitting quietly talking to Optimus.

Steelwind was leaning quietly on the door frame not saying a word but listening. She was also watching what Shadow was doing and watched as Heartbeat helped her set up everything.

She turned her helm where she could just see Optimus and Ratchet out of the corner of her optics. Ratceht had gotten over his shock and had commented he watned to help any way he could from this point.

Steelwind spoke to them. "Well if you wanna 'elp then y'better get y'aft out there an' do it, 'cause she's getting' started."

Steelwind knew exactly who the femme was that everyone was pining over. She had not known her personally but knew she was the one who had helped Reignfire and Nightfall, her own offspring, which was where Shadow had come in.

She had not been on Cybertron at the time but before she could come back deal with what had happened and thank the femme for her help, she had gone missing. This had all happened not long before her commissioned flight that had led to the crash on Earth on the ship, the Genesis.

Ratchet was out of the office like a shot. He quickly glanced at the clock on the wall and noted how long he had been lamenting in his office for and shifted out of his reverie quicker than anyone had ever seen him move. He looked at what the femmes were trying to set up and grabbed other items to help assist them. He didn't say a word and nor did the other, they just all seemed to instinctively know what to do.

Hours later, a small company had accrued at the entrance to the Medical bay.

"What's goin' on?" Rusty asked, passing by. She had just come back from the wash racks and found a few of the mechs gathered here.

"Oh hey you're that femme I met earlier right?"

Rusty noticed it was the youthful mech with the flame paint job and nodded. "Uh, Hot Rod? That's what your friends said your name was right?" She replied. "I'm Rusty, I don't have a fancy name, just…Rusty."

Hot nodded and explained that something was going on. Someone else had told him that some sort of drone had turned out to be an Autobot soldier or medic or something and they were doing a transfer to a new body.

"Weird huh?"

"Hmmm." Rusty just didn't seem interested in what was going on and wandered off. She had other things on her mind. She had just discovered her Aunt Eleanor, the same Aunt with the Scottish accent who had been looking after her all these years while she was growing up in Texas had turned out to be a Cybertronian in disguise and now she questioned whether she was really her Aunt at all or whether she was even human herself. And on top of that, her real parents had just been revealed to her and she couldn't take it. She argued with Eleanor, who was apparently called Supernova and then took off for the wash racks before heading for her quarters.

Hot Rod had noticed her wandering off and began to follow. "You seem bothered by something?"

Rusty opened the door to her quarters and looked back at the shorter mech, "Thanks for tryin' to care and keep that handsome face intact eh?" She smiled weakly at him as she pressed a button to slide the door closed behind her.

Hot Rod had heard from Drift who had read something in Ultra Magnus' reports about what had been happening here on Earth but he hadn't believed it till he saw it and it was weird, even to him and he shook his helm trying to get that weirdness out and go back to what was happening at the Medical bay.

Inside Rusty's room.

While it was a room they had fixed up for her and had a separate room for whenever her human friends visited, she was altogether glad they were here today, waiting for her to finish her duties.

"What's going on out there?" Laura asked.

Casey and Christine looked up at Rusty when Laura asked, hoping for some news.

"Something 'bout an Autobot bein' transferred to a new body I think?"

Casey had known Rusty long enough to know she wasn't her usual happy self and something else was going on. "Something else is bothering you isn't it?" She poked at the tall femmes leg casing.

Rusty sat down next to her human friends, still in her mecha form and crossed her legs in front her, grabbing at her peds.

She didn't know how to start.

Laura began for her. "Can I hazard a guess that you have just discovered something about yourself or your past that is something of a shock?"

Rusty looked right at her. "Somethin' like that."

Laura agreed. "I am not sure about Casey's situation but mine was inherently strange to some. I knew from a young age I was not human, despite the best efforts of my human foster parents to help me fit in. But in doing so I just became more human in my outlook on life, it never changed who I was on the inside."

Rusty sighed, "Well, seems my Aunt's a real Cybetronian and she's here on the base right now. I was introduced to my real parents or creators or whatever, who're here too. Eleanor, or Supernova, whatever her name is, well we talked after Id finished work unloading stuff but we had a fight and I stormed off to the wash racks to cool down then came right here."

The other three looked at each other.

"I don't even know what's real and what isn't anymore?" Casey lamented. I don't know what to think about myself now knowing what I am. My friends are about the only real family I've got right now."

. "I know just how ya feel." Rusty smiled down at Casey, she knew she was just trying to cheer her up. She was raised to think she was human for most of her life and found out she had been a sophisticated machine underneath the whole time.

"My life now beats what I was stuck in before at least!" Christine replied and some of the others agree with her.

Christine was born human, but had a really bad life, the worst any female could have she had guessed at the time. Beaten by a drunken father constantly, not cared for by a mother who was always on drugs. She was actually happy when Aurora had found her and taken her away from it, but it hadn't taken her rage away. Aurora had turned her into the human shaped mecha she was now.

"I still value what I have." Laura added. Both of Laura's parents were scientists at the Deane Corporation and still worked there and she still lived with them.

"Sooooo…" Christine started, "Who's your uh parents? Anyone we know?"

"Apprently," Rusty answered, "It's that big red blockhead Ironhide and some sky blue femme from Cybertron that just came here today. And my real name is Burnout."

"Well?" Laura asked "At least you can get to know them as one of their own."

Rusty sighed and laid herself out on the floor carefully so she wouldn't disrupt where her human sized friends were sitting.

Casey mumbled to herself, "How do machines even have kids? I mean they're machines? How is species propagation even possible?"

Laura answered Casey. "Casey my dear it is not physical, it is energetic. It is all about their sparks." Laura wasn't going to explain the whole process despite knowing it. Her parents had explained it to her when she was young. When she had asked them how they knew, they had said Aurora had told them.

"Isn't that the glowy ball thingy they have in their chest cavity?" Christine asked an she looked at where her heart would be, "I wonder if that's what I have now instead of this fuel pump heart thing."

"The spark is their soul." Laura continued, "And can be conjoined during certain processes to make new sparks which then leads to offspring and then those sparks can be pout into sparkling bodies."

Rusty clutched herself, "Ya think that's what we all are, I mean what you guys are now? I mean look what happened to Violet, she went through some sort of change and well, is an adult or whatever now. Like I'm some sort of full sized transformer or adult form now right?"

No one was able to answer her question as the door to Rusty's quarters opened. She swore to herself for not locking it but got up to face the visitor now standing there.

It was her Aunt, or whoever this femme Supernova was.

"Though' I migh' find the wee bairn tucked away in her new safe place." The femme stated thoughtfully.

"Slag off, I don't want to talk to you!" Rusty stormed off to another room and locked the door.

"Such language an' no' even wantin' tae come out an' meet yuir creators either!" Supernova mused. Two others walked in behind Supernova on her cue before Rusty had even seen them.

Casey got up to try and get her to come out, while the other two females just stood aside and minded their own business.

"I'm beginning to think if this trip was worthwhile coming." The blue visitor stated. "I'm not particularly impressed right now."

"You trah livin' with 'er!" The red one complained.

Both of them look at Supernova, and the dark orange coloured femme just shrugs back at them and smiles plaintively.


End file.
